The University of Pittsburgh has received dozens of bomb threats this year alone.
The University of Pittsburgh has received dozens of bomb threats this year alone.

A University of Pittsburgh student was charged this week with making false bomb threats to avoid teaching a class on March 20th.

Should I call in sick or call in a fake bomb threat?

Nancy Bruni of New Kensington, Pennsylvania apparently decided the latter was more appropriate to combat issues of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bruni was scheduled to teach a Health and Illness course, a class she had been overseeing, at 6:30 pm that day.

Campus police received a phone call shortly before 5:00 pm that evening,  with Bruni saying “This is kind of strange, but I received a message on my phone that two explosions were going to go off tonight at Posvar, one at 6:30 and again at 7:30.”

She would later confess to making the phone call, but did not divulge her bizarre intent and instead became upset that police did not evacuate the building that evening. Bruni left a threatening note in the women’s bathroom regarding the failure to evacuate and potential repercussions, creating more suspicion from the police and her students.

Those students quickly pulled the plug on the absurd experiment and notified police of her intentions.

Bruni is scheduled to appear in court in June on charges of making terroristic threats and threatening to use a weapon of mass-destruction.

But, hey at least she didn’t have to teach the class.

 

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]