May 2, 2008 8:17 pm US/Central
St. Xavier Student Arrested For Graffiti Threat
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Katherine Loberg, 19, was arrested and charged with making the threats that spurred officials to close St. Xavier University's three campuses for several days in April.
CBS
A 19-year-old Saint Xavier University student was arrested and charged with writing a threat that shut the school's campuses for several days last month, according to Chicago police.
Katherine Loberg of St. Paul, Minn., was charged Friday with one count of criminal defacement of property and one count of disorderly conduct.
She's due in bond court Saturday.
University spokesperson Joe Moore says Loberg has been placed on immediate administrative suspension and is barred from campus.
The Roman Catholic school closed after the discovery of restroom graffiti in a freshman dormitory that read "be prepared to die on 4/14."
Saint Xavier University, which has campuses in Chicago and Orland Park, canceled all classes for its 5,700 students for five days.
All students were given less than 24 hours to evacuate the campuses after the closure was announced.
University officials said they worked closely with the Chicago Police Department, and later the FBI, in making the decision to close the school and later reopen once a person of interest was identified.
The April 10 graffiti threat followed another incident April 5. That threat was found in a bathroom stall at the coed dorm. The message was of a "threatening but nonspecific nature," the school said in a statement.
The incident was reported to campus authorities and Chicago police. After the initial incident, Saint Xavier increased staff at the residence hall, which houses about 245 students, and discussed the incident with the people who lived there, officials said.
Campuses around Illinois have been on alert since a Valentine's Day shooting when a gunman burst into a lecture hall at NIU, killing five students and wounding 18 others before turning the gun on himself.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested a University of Illinois at Chicago student in late February for allegedly making e-mail threats of a "mass shooting" on the UIC campus. She was charged with one count of making threats through use of interstate commerce.
And Illinois State University said in late February police were investigating graffiti found in a dorm bathroom that referenced the NIU incident. The graffiti was scrawled in black marker on a toilet-paper dispenser and read "ISU is the next NIU."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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