The student responsible for the “unsubstantiated threat” has not been criminally charged, according to Jack Cotrel, associate vice president of public safety.
On March 13, students were sent e-mail and text messages via GoldAlert to warn them of a threat that had been sent to the Office of Academic Advisement voice mail the evening before.
It turns out that the message received by the Advisement Resources Career Center was an automated version of a text message “sent inadvertently” by the student, said Cotrel.
The student was having a text conversation with his girlfriend by “passing the phone back and forth and hit the wrong button,” said Cotrel.
The two were in a fight and the threat was not directed toward ETSU.
“It was an accident. Someone hit send instead of delete,” said Cotrel.
After some investigation, public safety found that “a service provider automatically turns it to voice over text when sent to a phone that has no text messaging,” said Cotrel. With some companies there are multiple steps to make a text message become an automated call, but the student’s carrier completed the process automatically.
“There is a reasonable degree of certainty that the call was made by mistake. There is no evidence of intent to make the phone call,” said Cotrel.
Even though the investigation is not complete, there is a “zero to none likelihood that he will be charged,” said Cotrel.
According to Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Joe Sherlin, the student has “voluntarily withdrawn from the university.”
If an incident similar to this one does occur again, the university will take the same precautions.
“We can’t afford to take anything for granted. We will evaluate and try to make the right decision based on information given at that time,” said Cotrel.

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