Citrus College gun safety protocol has been effective thus far, but student government and some of the general student body search for ways to improve the safety of the campus.
“I think I feel safe just because my personal experiences haven’t involved gun violence,” Jessica Baker, a Citrus College political science major, said. “But I definitely know that it’s a big issue and it’s something that we should worry about just because of everything else going on.”
Community colleges around the area have taken their own initiatives to respond to concerns like these.
Mt. San Antonio College recently switched their security to a full police force dedicated to the college’s campus.
Some students have also shown support for similar actions to be taken at Citrus.
“Honestly, that would be amazing.” Angela Brandonisio, a Citrus College Art History major, said in regards to switching campus safety to a full police force. “I think we could always use more safety, you know? Because you never know.”
“You would eliminate a lot of threats knowing that the campus is fully-armed,” Yuri Andres, another Citrus student, said.
However, Vice President of Associated Students of Citrus College, Ian Rodrigues, says this idea is not something Citrus is ready for just yet.
“Mt. SAC, I think has, like three or four times the number of students that Citrus has,” he said. “So, I think going and creating a full-fledged police department [for Citrus] is a little premature.”
Among the college administrators, Favian Fragoso, president of ASCC, said that from his experiences at student government meetings, the idea of switching to an armed police force has not gained much traction.
“There has been some slight talks about it, but nothing too seriously,” Fragoso said. “It was mostly in response to Mt. SAC.”
Citrus political science professor, Glen Ross, expressed concern with the idea of expanding Campus Safety to a fully-equipped police force, “I think that’s a little bit premature — being a little bit over-paranoid.”
Amid recent school shootings like Parkland, Florida where 17 people died last month, other incidents have hit within close proximity to Citrus College.
On March 7, students and faculty on Pierce College’s campus in Woodland Hills had an incident involving an individual allegedly threatening to open fire on the school’s campus. Later, the suspect was arrested and taken into custody.
Randi Love, editor in chief at Pierce College’s student newspaper, The Roundup, said Pierce College saw the incident as an opportunity to grow.
“They want to build on what they’re already doing by just maybe doing more training, according to the captain of the community college bureau,” Love said. “They’re very proud of what they’re doing currently.”
The number of enrolled students at Citrus is about the same as Pierce Community College, according to the information on each school’s respective websites, yet Pierce is another community college which relies on armed police as their form of campus security.
“We have a sheriff station on campus that has sheriffs that actually are a part of LASD and they’re here 24 hours a day,” Love said.
However, leaders of Citrus College ASCC offer other solutions that could be applied.
“There’s several different steps that you could do to ensure public safety,” Rodrigues said. “One of them is just putting basic public safety security cameras on campus…”
In response to solutions recently proposed by the Trump Administration to combat gun violence by arming instructors, some Citrus faculty doubt the efficacy of proposed solutions.
“From my standpoint, I’ve never carried a gun in my life, and I don’t have any real desire to,” Glen Ross, Citrus College political science professor, said. “I don’t feel like my life is threatened that much, and I would be afraid, more than anything, that I would shoot an innocent person” Ross said.
“Arming teachers — I’m not okay with that,” Eric Lopez, a Citrus College sociology professor, said.
Instead, different solutions were offered to curb gun violence and reduce such threats on campuses.
“I think any changes that the school wants to make to our campus safety department, they need to allow for students to be able to voice their opinions,” Fragoso said. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s not really faculty that have to interact with them on a daily basis, it’s the students.”
“If it came to the time where they wanted to make changes, I think the students should come out in full force and speak up and voice their concerns,” Fragoso said.
To report any threat of gun violence on campus, call 911. For any other information, contact campus safety at (626) 914-8611.
