Updated 03/16/2012 04:13 PM
Sheriff's Deputies Confirm Umbrella Caused Gun Scare at RIT
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Things are back to normal now at the RIT campus, but the school was on lockdown for several hours after there was a report of a student on campus with a rifle.
RIT spokesman Paul Stella said an RTS bus driver thought he saw a student carrying a rifle.
The driver contacted his office, which then contacted authorities.
While the investigation was underway, an alert went out to students on their cell phones, landlines, and through emails telling them to stay in their rooms and classrooms.
Authorities were able to track the first year photography student to his residence hall. Stella says he was cooperative and showed authorities an umbrella he had with a samurai-style handle that was mistaken for that rifle.
Stella said the RTS bus driver did exactly what he was supposed to do.
"The good thing is with the RIT alert system we are able to reach out to everybody, all the key stakeholders on campus, to let them know there is a situation," said Stella.
"It makes me feel safer. I like the whole system we have," said Kelsey Full, student.
Stella says authorities confiscated the umbrella and the student will only get that back at the end of the school year.