Student's mother, staff union urge Laurentian University to tighten response to violent threats after hoax

It was the longest hour of Shelley Beneteau's life as she waited to hear about the safety of her 18 year-old son, who is a Laurentian university student. This, after he received an email telling all staff, students and faculty to shelter in place, on the morning of January 27, 2025.

Police were responding to a call to 911, purportedly from a person who was armed and threatening to take hostages on campus.

It turned out to be a hoax, but Beneteau says the university failed to take steps to protect students and everyone else.

She said she told her son to lock the classroom door against a possible intruder, but he told her it didn't lock from the inside and there were no chairs to use to block it.

"It was super stressful," she said.

While her son seemed less concerned, Beneteau is urging the university to be more accountable.

Beneteau is an elementary school teacher in Sudbury, and at her place of work, there is a very specific set of protocols and language designed to prevent harm to any student or staff member, and on which everyone is drilled twice a year.

"Our plans are so much more specific and we're held to a higher standard," she said. "So here I am in a school having all these texts, freaking out because my son is somewhere where they're not taking that seriously; and a professor can't lock a door. They can't be safe"

Beneteau says while there was no danger in the end, the idea that it could one day happen for real keeps everyone on edge.

That's also on the mind of the president of the Laurentian university staff union, Tom Fenske.

He said the union had a meeting with the administration recently to air its concerns about confusing communication and and lack of established protocols.

Fenske said people were unsure what "sheltering" might mean or where to go.

He said the campus wasn't closed during the incident and transit buses kept running.

He said the union's concerns were well-received at the meeting and he thinks the university will prioritize improving and tightening up its plan in cases where there may be a threat of violence on campus.

He said he hopes that is the case, given recent violence in schools, most prominently south of the border 

"It's something we always have to be prepared for, although percentage-wise, it's incredibly low," he said. "You cannot be complacent that it's not going to happen. And I think that everybody understands that. And so there are steps being taken right now to get people trained up to where they need to be."

Laurentian reviewing its response

Laurentian said in a statement that the university does have several employees who have been trained on violent threat risk assessment protocols, as well as training through the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment (NABITA) in order to guide the school's response. 

It says it will continue to use those protocols to guide training, and incident response.

It adds that it is reviewing all aspects of its response to make sure it can protect everyone on campus.