Campus Alert Archive
FGC

Two Days of Hoax Bomb Threats Empty a Lake City Campus

FLbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

Florida Gateway College in Lake City, Florida, was evacuated on two consecutive days, July 13 and 14, 2022, after phoned-in bomb threats. Columbia County Sheriff's deputies cleared the campus both times and found no devices, part of a wave of bomb threats that hit multiple North Central Florida colleges that week.

Alerts
3
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Florida Gateway College
Community College · FL
~6,000 students
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction146 chars
FGC Alert: Due to a threat, the campus is being evacuated immediately. Leave the area and await further instructions. Do not return until cleared.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed paraphrase: reporting described a 911 bomb-threat call around 3:00 p.m. EDT and a full-campus evacuation ordered by the officer in charge and FGC President Dr. Lawrence Barrett, but did not quote the verbatim alert text.
Day one began with the evacuation of three classes and academic offices before escalating to a full-campus evacuation.
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstruction126 chars
FGC Alert: Law enforcement has searched the campus and found no threat. The all clear is given. Normal operations will resume.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: reporting confirmed the Columbia County Sheriff's Office cleared the campus and found no device on day one, but the verbatim all-clear text was not published.
This all-clear ends the day-one event; the second threat the following day reopened the cycle.
FOLLOW-UPSMS
Approximate reconstruction134 chars
FGC Alert: A second threat has prompted another evacuation. Leave campus now. Do not return until law enforcement gives the all clear.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed: Main Street Daily News reported a second threat around 3:00 p.m. EDT on July 14 and that deputies cleared the campus in under three hours, completing the search of the area under investigation at 5:45 p.m. EDT.
Typed follow-up rather than initial because it is the second alert cycle of the same multi-day incident.
Context

Background

Florida Gateway College is a public community college in Lake City, in Columbia County, North Central Florida. In mid-July 2022 it was caught in a wave of bomb threats that hit several area colleges. Main Street Daily News reported that a 911 caller phoned in a bomb threat around 3:00 p.m. EDT on July 13, 2022, prompting the officer in charge and FGC President Dr. Lawrence Barrett to evacuate the entire campus; deputies searched and found no device. A second threat the next day, around 3:00 p.m. EDT on July 14, again emptied the campus, with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office completing its search at 5:45 p.m. EDT and finding no threat. WCJB reported that the same week saw bomb threats force evacuations at Santa Fe College satellite campuses in Alachua and Starke and at College of Central Florida's Ocala campus. The FBI tied many of the period's college bomb threats to a nationwide hoax series. This case adds a community-college voice and a multi-day hoax pattern that mirrors the HBCU bomb-threat waves already in the archive.
Analysis

Key Findings

Florida Gateway College was evacuated on two consecutive days, July 13 and 14, 2022, both times finding no device
Both threats arrived around 3:00 p.m. EDT, and deputies cleared the second one in under three hours
The episode was part of a regional wave that also hit Santa Fe College satellite campuses and College of Central Florida
Outcome
No explosive devices were found on either day. The Columbia County Sheriff's Office cleared the Lake City campus both times. The threats were treated as hoaxes, part of a broader regional wave.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Florida Gateway College receives 2 bomb threats - Main Street Daily News
    mainstreetdailynews.com
  2. News
    Multiple North Central Florida colleges receive bomb threats - WCJB
    wcjb.com
Tags
bomb-threathoaxfloridacommunity-collegelake-cityevacuationmulti-dayHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion