False Alarm: Student's 'Rifle' Actually Umbrella

Looks like the campus lockdown wasn't necessary after all. After a bus driver reported a gun-toting student at Rochester Institute of Technology, police rapidly directed students and staff to stay inside and bolt doors. But within an hour, officials had spoken to the student—a freshman photographer—to learn that his "rifle" was just an umbrella with a handle made to look like a Samurai sword, the Democrat and Chronicle reports. RIT officials likely had in mind this week's jury decision that Virginia Tech didn't act quickly enough to put the word out during the 2007 rampage there. (More Rochester stories.)