In my freshman year writing class I wrote a persuasive paper about changing LBCC Campus Safety into an actual police department. In my communications class I gave a speech about the same topic.
Now that I am in my sophomore year of college, school massacres have occurred closer to home. This Fall Umpqua Community College (UCC), was attacked by one of their own students. In support of UCC, all around our campus, we hung signs stating, "I am UCC."
It is nice that we were supportive of UCC during their time of horror. But what is the purpose of it all if we don't change our mindset. Isn't it an educated choice to learn from the past. One learned man once said, "It is smart to learn from your past, it is genius to learn from other people's past."
We can all argue until we are blue in the face about do guns make campuses safer? Is it realistic to pay for the training to send all of our campus safety officers to the police academy? Are campus safety officers less approachable if they have a gun on their hip? All of these questions can be asked, but isn't it more important to ask, "Can we put a price on safety?"
While writing my persuasive essay for my writing class, I was sitting in the library. I could count from my seat, 23 emergency items relating to fire. Fire sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, fire strobe lights. All of these items will help students get out of the building in case of a fire.
Did you know that the last time more than ten people died in a school fire was in 1954, in Cleveland, Ohio. That is due to the fire code. All of the building materials that are used to build schools have to meet certain specifications. From the drywall, to the carpet, to the ceiling tiles, all are chosen because they meet fire code.
Remember when you were a kid and you had earthquake drills in school. The teacher would say, "okay kids, we are having an earthquake, get under your desk." This practice is still used today. We have had both fire and earthquake drills here at LBCC this year. In the same time that an earthquake has killed two students at school, 120 students have been murdered in school massacres.
Obviously fire and earthquake prevention work. So why do we do nothing at all to prevent school shootings? I have been a student at LBCC for almost two years now, and all I have seen to inform students of what to do in case of a school shooting is this.
The intercom system activated and told us that there was an emergency. The instructor turned off the lights and locked the door. The whole time it was happening, students were grumbling about how stupid the drill was.
However, when I interviewed 20 students and asked them if they would feel safer if LBCC has an actual police department instead of the current campus safety, 15 of them said they would. This was prior to UCC. I would imagine that percentage would be higher today.
When I asked a staff member at campus security why they aren't armed, he honestly answered with, "we want to be approachable for the students, and we are less so if we are armed." Seriously? I was in law enforcement for almost eight years, and in that time I wasn't less approachable for carrying a handgun. Being approachable has to do with being professional and having a good personality.
People expect police officers to have a gun, like they expect firefighters to have a hose. Lets stop putting off the inevitable. I bet if you asked the student body at UCC today if they wanted armed security on their campus, and the majority of them would say yes.
Times are changing, yet all we do to support people for their loss is hanging a sign saying, "I am UCC." If that is truly how we feel, that we "are UCC," then we must know that a school massacre could happen here at LBCC. You can't have it both ways. You can't say, "we are UCC," in support, but not say "we are UCC," and never expect a massacre to happen. I truly hope we never "become UCC."
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