“My name is Hwi Lee. With guilt and shame, I truly would like to apologize for causing a great public disturbance and distress to all students, faculties and staff at UBC. I am terribly sorry that my actions made so many people feel uneasy and scary at a place where a safe learning environment is to be taken for granted.”
So begins Hwi Lee’s apology letter to UBC. Over one and a half years later, the then 19-year-old UBC student still feels remorse for threats he made to UBC.
On January 30, 2008, UBC Campus Security received an e-mail threat that specifically targeted the Biological Sciences building. RCMP Staff Sargeant Kevin Kenna said that the original threat was from an individual who said he was going to cause harm to himself and others.
The RCMP was notified and acted quickly to place the building on “lockdown,” meaning that no person could enter or exit the building. Up to 1000 students and faculty were stuck inside the building for at least three hours, some longer, as the RCMP’s ERT, the equivalent to the American SWAT team, slowly allowed students to leave. A second, less specific e-mail threat was sent a week later, causing the cancellation of all classes in the BioSciences Building.
A month later, Lee was arrested after being identified on video surveillance after the two e-mails he sent were traced to a computer in the SUB. What followed was months of trials and hardship as Lee went to court. In April 2009 he was charged with counts of mischief and uttering threats, and was released from jail on strict conditions: he is not allowed to visit UBC, and he served a one-year conditional sentence that included 50 hours of community service, a 10pm curfew for 6 months and he had to write a letter to the editor of The Ubyssey.
“The whole thing went very well from my perspective,” said Kenna, “and we worked together and got to the bottom line and ended up with [the person] who was making the threats. So I think that kind of eased everybody’s mind in the end—there’s nothing left hanging in the air.”
Lee immigrated to Canada from South Korea and graduated from Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam. He attended UBC to study science. His classmates called him “the smartest kid in school,” and he placed high in Euclid math competitions.
He has an intense fear of public speaking, and told the court that he sent the e-mails in hope that his class would be cancelled so that he could avoid giving an oral presentation. A high school friend of Lee’s told CBC News that he was under a lot of pressure at home to become a doctor.
Pamela Hart, president of a Vancouver-based company called Raise Your Voice, offered Lee free public speaking lessons shortly after his sentencing. Raise Your Voice specializes in public speaking and presentation skills training.
Hart told The Ubyssey that she was touched by Lee’s story.
“I felt so much compassion for him,” she said. “When I read his story it was so touching, the pressure he was under, how much work he’d been doing to try and get to where he had gotten and what he had accomplished.”
Hart said that Lee’s case was not uncommon.
“What he faced is not uncommon for students, for business people…many people have an incredible fear of speaking in public, being able to articulate their ideas and
organize their thoughts. And especially because a lot of my clients are people with [English as a Second Language (ESL)], I felt a real compassion for him.”
Lee did not take Hart up on her offer. She said that his lawyer informed her that Lee was “taking time off” from everything.
She hopes that he will eventually accept her offer. The Ubyssey’s efforts to get a hold of Lee were unsuccessful as calls to his supervisor went unanswered.
“I’m hoping that since he’s going to be going back to school this fall…I would hope that he will eventually be able to take me up on that,” she said.
Lockdown procedures at UBC
What is a lockdown?
A lockdown is an emergency procedure that is intended to protect and secure those who are in proximity of an immediate threat. It is used when evacuating those in danger from a building would be more dangerous than having them stay inside. Emergency personnel can better handle and contain threats this way. Those in the building are instructed to remain inside and await escort from emergency personnel.
Catherine Christensen, liaison for the department of Health, Safety and Environment at UBC, said that UBC developed specific lockdown protocols following the incident at the Biological Sciences building in the fall of 2008.
What to do in case of a lockdown
Do not open the door once it has been secured until you are instructed to do so by emergency personnel. Identification and a password will be used by emergency personnel to alert secured individuals.
Do not use or hide in washrooms, where there are no
alternate doors or windows, few hiding spaces and noise is amplified.
Do not travel down long corridors or hallways. They offer limited areas of refuge.
Do not assemble in large open areas. They have limited hiding spaces and lack of lockable doors.
Do not call 911 unless you have immediate concern for your safety.
If the fire alarm is activated, remain where you are until further instructed over a PA or portable loudspeaker.
Emergency procedures at UBC
UBC has procedures and provisions in place for a number of different emergency situations, including an earthquake, fire, lockdown and bomb threat. They have a text messaging system to notify students of an emergency. The university uses the BC Emergency Response Management System as a framework to respond to emergencies.
UBC has also staged an annual emergency exercise each June since 1993. More information on UBC’s emergency procedures can be found at emergency.ubc.ca.
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