{
  "id": "2025-09-02-slippery-rock-university-swatting",
  "slug": "slippery-rock-university-swatting-2025-09-02",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania",
    "shortName": "SRU",
    "state": "PA",
    "type": "public-masters",
    "alertSystemName": "SRU Alert",
    "enrollment": 8500
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2025-09-02",
    "type": "swatting",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "confirmed-hoax",
    "headline": "Bomb threat cleared by noon after a campus sweep; suspected to be a swatting attempt",
    "headlinePublic": "Bomb threat cleared by noon after a campus sweep; suspected to be a swatting attempt",
    "summary": "On September 2, 2025, [Slippery Rock University](https://butlerradio.com/slippery-rock-university-investigating-bomb-threat/) (a Pennsylvania state public university roughly an hour north of Pittsburgh) received a bomb threat at approximately 10:25 AM EDT that prompted a campus-wide search and sweep. SRU Police gave the [all-clear by noon](https://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/2025/09/02/breaking-news-slippery-rock-university-police-give-all-clear-following-bomb-threat/) after a thorough sweep of buildings and residence halls. The threat was [classified as a suspected swatting attempt](https://beavercountyradio.com/news/slippery-rock-university-experiences-a-temporary-bomb-threat-which-is-suspected-to-be-a-swatting-attempt/) part of the nationwide 2025 wave that had hit 32 campuses by then.",
    "outcome": "No bomb was found. SRU Police gave the all-clear by noon EDT after a comprehensive sweep of buildings including residence halls. The incident was classified as a suspected swatting attempt and reported to federal agencies. SRU was the 32nd US college targeted in the 2025 swatting wave.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Approximately 10:30 AM EDT on September 2, 2025, shortly after the threat was received at 10:25 AM",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from Butler Radio, Butler Eagle, and The Rocket reporting on the SRU initial alert",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestampApprox": "Shortly after 12:00 PM EDT on September 2, 2025",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from The Rocket, Hoodline, and Audacy/KDKA reporting on the SRU all-clear",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestamp": "2025-09-02T16:13:00-04:00",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "If a student is involved in swatting, the University will work closely with campus and local law enforcement to support a full investigation.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/2025/09/02/breaking-news-slippery-rock-university-police-give-all-clear-following-bomb-threat/",
      "sourceDescription": "Verbatim quote from President Karen Riley's 4:13 PM email, as reported by The Rocket student newspaper",
      "annotations": [
        "President Karen Riley's follow-up email at 4:13 PM EDT was the third campus-wide communication of the day, after the initial alert and the noon all-clear",
        "Riley's note explicitly framed swatting as both a Student Code of Conduct violation and a federal/state crime, an unusually direct disciplinary signal during the active investigation",
        "President Riley named swatting directly in the message rather than using more generic language such as 'security incident'"
      ],
      "characterCount": 141
    }
  ],
  "context": "On the morning of September 2, 2025 (the day after Labor Day weekend) [Slippery Rock University](https://butlerradio.com/slippery-rock-university-investigating-bomb-threat/) in western Pennsylvania received a [bomb threat at approximately 10:25 AM EDT](https://www.butlereagle.com/20250902/bomb-threat-under-investigation-at-sru/). SRU Police initiated a comprehensive building-by-building sweep that included both academic buildings and residence halls. By [shortly after noon](https://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/2025/09/02/breaking-news-slippery-rock-university-police-give-all-clear-following-bomb-threat/), SRU Police had cleared all buildings and issued an all-clear to the campus community. The university [explicitly characterized the incident as a suspected swatting attempt](https://beavercountyradio.com/news/slippery-rock-university-experiences-a-temporary-bomb-threat-which-is-suspected-to-be-a-swatting-attempt/) and reported it to federal authorities. Slippery Rock, a regional public university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) with approximately 8,500 students, became the [32nd college or university](https://hoodline.com/2025/09/slippery-rock-university-evacuated-amid-bomb-threat-suspected-as-swatting-incident-federal-investigation-underway/) targeted in the 2025 swatting wave, which had begun in earnest on August 21 with the Villanova hoax. Unlike many of the August 2025 hoaxes which involved active shooter calls to libraries, the SRU hoax was a bomb threat, a different tactical variant that triggered building searches rather than shelter-in-place lockdowns. The September 2 incident demonstrated that the Purgatory wave was rapidly expanding beyond elite R1 institutions to regional public universities and smaller campuses, dramatically broadening the geography of the threat.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "SRU was the 32nd US college targeted in the 2025 swatting wave, marking a significant expansion to regional public universities",
    "The bomb threat tactic (rather than active shooter) represented a different variant of the swatting playbook, requiring building searches rather than shelter-in-place",
    "SRU explicitly used the word 'swatting' in its public communications, publicly characterizing the incident as a suspected hoax the same day",
    "The all-clear came approximately 90 minutes after the initial alert, following a search of all academic buildings and residence halls",
    "The incident was reported to federal authorities, consistent with the FBI's investigation of the 2025 college swatting wave linked to the group known as Purgatory"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Slippery Rock University Investigating Bomb Threat (Butler Radio)",
      "url": "https://butlerradio.com/slippery-rock-university-investigating-bomb-threat/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "BREAKING NEWS: SRU Police give all clear following bomb threat (The Rocket)",
      "url": "https://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/2025/09/02/breaking-news-slippery-rock-university-police-give-all-clear-following-bomb-threat/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "Slippery Rock experiences a temporary bomb threat suspected to be a swatting attempt (Beaver County Radio)",
      "url": "https://beavercountyradio.com/news/slippery-rock-university-experiences-a-temporary-bomb-threat-which-is-suspected-to-be-a-swatting-attempt/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "SRU Evacuated Amid Bomb Threat Suspected as Swatting Incident (Hoodline)",
      "url": "https://hoodline.com/2025/09/slippery-rock-university-evacuated-amid-bomb-threat-suspected-as-swatting-incident-federal-investigation-underway/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Bomb threat under investigation at SRU (Butler Eagle)",
      "url": "https://www.butlereagle.com/20250902/bomb-threat-under-investigation-at-sru/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "SRU issues all clear after bomb threat spurs thorough campus search and sweep (WPXI)",
      "url": "https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/slippery-rock-university-sweeping-buildings-after-bomb-threat-thats-suspected-be-swatting/RJV3RROQIFDYRKSPISCHGJI32M/",
      "type": "local-media"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "swatting",
    "bomb-threat",
    "slippery-rock",
    "pennsylvania",
    "passhe",
    "regional-public",
    "2025-purgatory-wave",
    "fbi-investigation",
    "post-labor-day",
    "rural-campus"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-03",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-05-03",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}