With the Brown University shooter still at large, and no information about a motive in an attack that killed two students over the weekend, schools up and down New England were grappling with fear and uncertainty on Monday.
Several private schools in the Providence, R.I., area canceled classes on Monday. Public schools in the area stayed open, but with a heightened police presence. At the University of Rhode Island, about 30 miles away in South Kingstown, in-person exams were canceled.
Officials said there were no known threats to schools or colleges, but that decisions were made out of caution and in response to community concerns. On many campuses, students are wrapping up final exams this week.
The shooting at Brown occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday, when a man with a face mask and a rifle burst into a classroom during a final-exam review session and opened fire.
The news that a suspect detained by the authorities had been released and that officials did not know if the gunman was still in the city spiked new anxieties on Monday, in a geographically dense part of the country home to many universities and several Ivy League campuses all within driving distance.
At Yale University in New Haven, Conn., about 100 miles southwest of Brown, the school said it would be requiring students and staff members to swipe IDs to get into most campus buildings and providing “increased, high visibility security coverage on campus throughout the examination period.” Security would also be extended through Hanukkah, after an attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, killed 15 people over the weekend.
Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., was similarly beefing up security, with a focus on final exam locations. Harvard’s campus is just an hour from Brown, and there are close connections between the universities.
David J. Deming, dean of Harvard College, described Brown as a “sister campus” at a vigil Sunday night, The Harvard Crimson reported.
“Many of you have friends and family and members of the community who are affiliated with Brown or who are there now,” he said. “I know I do.”
Sarah Mervosh covers education for The Times, focusing on K-12 schools.
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