University of Miami School of Communication students have reported an unidentified student allegedly made a threat during an afternoon class after entering the room with handcuffs, two cans of beer, a bottle of pills and a GoPro camera strapped to her chest.
The incident took place between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Professor Patrick Waldinger’s Argumentation and Critical Thinking class, according to Molly Greenberg, a student in the class. The student, who Greenberg identified as Maria, was supposed to give a presentation and appeared to be unstable.
Maria allegedly made the classmate sitting next to her handcuff her hands together and keep the key through the remainder of the presentation. She then walked up to the front of the class with two cans of beer and a bottle of pills, “just in case.”
Four police vehicles were parked in front of the entrance to the School of Communication on Brunson Drive around 2:20 p.m. “It’s safe. Nothing is going on,” a UM Police Department officer said.
Greenberg said the student went on an “insane rant about how she was a paranoid schizophrenic and all these things,” and at one point made a “casual” comment about how she could have shot up the class but instead came to “teach” her peers.
Greenberg said the woman did mention that she was “in some sort of U.S. Army.”
After finishing her presentation, the student reportedly walked out and Waldinger followed her outside. When he reentered the class, he dismissed the students as a precaution but assured them the student was not armed.
UMPD was called to the school. There was no message sent out to students through the university’s Emergency Notification Network (ENN), but University Communications released a statement through its Twitter account around 3 p.m. saying the situation was no threat to the campus.
“The safety of our students is of paramount importance. Administration is aware of the matter, and proper steps to ensure safety have been taken,” the statement said. “There is no threat to the campus.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article included unverified information overheard from professors speaking about the student involved in the incident.