A student who appeared intoxicated disrupted an afternoon class Monday by waving around a pocket knife, resulting in him being taken into custody by the Department of Public Safety, said DPS Chief Tony Callisto.

The student was removed from campus and is now facing action by the Office of Judicial Affairs for violation of the Student Code of Conduct, Callisto said.

The student wandered into a Hall of Languages class at around 2 p.m. and sat at one of the desks, Callisto said. DPS could not specify which classroom the student entered, Callisto said.

The student began yelling at the students in the class and then took a knife out of his pocket, Callisto said.

‘He never threatened anyone with the knife,’ Callisto said. 

The student was not enrolled in the class, but knew someone in it, said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president of public affairs.

Callisto could not release the name of the student under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects student education records, he said. 

Students in the class immediately called DPS to report the incident, Callisto said. They evacuated their classroom, but not under DPS orders. No one else in the building evacuated, he said. 

The first DPS officer arrived on the scene within 30 seconds, and the student, who had exited the classroom, was found and taken into custody a minute later, Callisto said. 

Because of the quick response time, no Orange Alert, Syracuse University’s emergency alert system, was sent to the student body, Callisto said. 

‘The only time we issue an Orange Alert is if there is an immediate threat to the community,’ he said. ‘We got to the scene and had the suspect in custody so quickly, there was no threat to the community.’

Through interviews on the scene with several students and a faculty member, DPS determined the student did not make any threats and did not break any laws, so the Syracuse Police Department was not called and the student was not arrested, Callisto said. The student was questioned by DPS and released.

The student did, however, break the Code of Conduct and will not be allowed back on campus until the matter is sorted out by Judicial Affairs, Callisto said.

Callisto did not know how long Judicial Affairs’ action will take or what the sentence will be, he said. Typically, this kind of violation of the Code of Conduct could result in anything from mandated counseling to an extended suspension.

rhkheel@syr.edu

— A previous version of this article appeared on dailyorange.com on Sept. 13.

Published on September 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm