Students are on campus, and today is just like every other day.
The routine is class, lunch, class, then library for some studying.
You just got a seat in the computer lab and suddenly, there is an alert from campus police about an active shooter on campus.
What do students do now?
The reality is, occurrences like this don’t happen everyday in our personal lives so most people don’t think twice about it even though we hear about it in the news.
In February, there were two shootings back-to-back that happened in a plaza directly across campus.
Although the crime did not happen on campus, nor involved Cerritos College students or staff, it still raised the issue of campus safety regarding shootings.
It is evident that although students recognize the severity of shootings, that is not something that regularly crosses their mind.
But like the saying goes, “You never know until it actually happens to you.”
Lupe Naranjo, epidemiology major expressed, “The shootings happened outside of campus so I think no one felt in danger, but I think if there was a shooter on campus, no one would feel prepared.”
Another student, Phaleap Pheakdey, aerospace engineering major said “I feel pretty safe because the shootings happened outside of campus and nothing ever happened here.”
Cerritos College faculty and staff actually held a campus safety forum last October in 2015 which was way before the shooting in February.
But, the two shootings in February have brought more awareness in how important safety is; and on April 21, there will be a campus safety forum to provide training.
Campus Police, Student Help and Wellness, Student Services and Human Resources will be involved in presenting resources for the campus community.
Chief of Police Tom Galivan has been and is currently involved in more campus safety training initiatives.
He said, “I’ve personally gone out to several division and department meetings involving staff and faculty and did presentations on active shooter training.
We’ve had three campus safety forums where we did active shooter training and campus safety open to faculty and students.”
As far as reaching out to students, there was a “campus watch informational presentation” to talk about campus safety on April 6.
He expressed that, “Everybody should be aware of personal safety but we’re all busy so unless it happens, people don’t think abut it.
Our challenge has always been reaching out and how do we get the word out.”
For the time being, some basic tips in the instance of an active shooter is in this link provided by Cerritos College Campus Police.
