What sort of American would ever pass up the opportunity to pop a few bubbles from packing material? None that I’d want to call “friend”. The joy of popping bubble wrap is something we all love, regardless of race, color, or creed, and was famously celebrated by that modern American poet, Alfred M. Yankovic, in his magnum opus “White and Nerdy“. Studies have apparently shown that popping bubbles increase levels of calmness and alertness. (Hey, whatever gets you tenure, dude. Good job getting funding for that!) Anyway, it seems that a few rapscallions attending Valley Forge Military Academy were having fun with some bubble wrap on Tuesday. Just a harmless bit of fun, right?
In this case, it triggered a full-scale alert at the military academy, along with nearby Eastern University and Cabrini University. In total, schools with enrollment totaling over 5,000 students were put into lock down because someone thought bubble wrap popping was gunfire. The Associated Press reports:
A student who lives in an Eastern University apartment building located on the property of the Valley Forge Military Academy and College heard what she thought were shots fired Monday evening and called 911, academy officials said in a statement.
Police from Radnor and Tredyffrin Townships responded, and the academy, Eastern University and nearby Cabrini University were all placed on lockdown while police searched the area. They found no weapons or evidence of any weapon being fired at any time, and no one was injured, officials said.
So it wasn’t one of the Valley Forge Military Academy students, whose high school curriculum includes things such as “tactical leadership“. No, they appear to be made of sterner stuff than the Eastern University Eagles. Eastern’s officials made a post on Facebook stating that they were “thankful this event was not an actual gun related situation.” If they felt embarrassment that one of their pupils pressed the proverbial panic button over bubble wrap, that emotion was not communicated via social media at this time.
There’s only one thing I’m wondering about: did the official panic here communicate some sort of object lesson to millions of C+ students about a way to avoid that exam they forgot to study for?
[Hat tip: Doreen McCallister, NPR.org]