By Alexandra Chavez
By Alexandra Chavez
You’re a female, and you have just left your night class at RCC. Armed with mace in one hand and your keys in the other, you walk quickly to your car giving out a sigh of relief as soon as you get in.
Unfortunately, many females can relate to this situation that attend a night class at RCC. The question is-what can be done to be better prepared when leaving class?
“Most importantly, know your environment” says Sgt. Jack Kohlmeier, who is in charge of the on campus police department.
Other useful tips given from Kohlmeier are for students to go out to the car in groups, avoid dark secluded areas and be observant of everything around them.
If someone is acting in a suspicious manner, such as loitering in a dark area, then most likely they are dangerous.
No student should feel unsafe on a college campus, and by dialing 222-8171 a police escort will be on hand to take students to their cars as well as secure the area. By following this simple guideline, especially during a night class, students should have a safe experience while attending RCC.
According to the posted crime report on RCC’s main Internet site, there have been two sex offenses in recent years. Although those numbers seems low, compare the statistics that also include burglary and car theft to other campuses such as Chaffey and Saddleback, and it is surprising. The numbers of burglaries, car theft and sexual assaults are considerably higher as compared to other colleges such as Chaffey and Saddleback.
Although there have not been any recent major crimes committed on campus, there is no excuse to avoid any extra security.
Type in “code blue” on Google and hundreds of colleges, including community colleges will pop us showing the lights on each campus. The lights have a large button and when pushed, there is an immediate alert sent out to police.
Considering that RCC is one of the most established community colleges in the country, you would think that these “Code Blue” lights would be everywhere on campus.
Just having them in secluded areas, especially near the Life Science building would be a great help-especially since the recent “peeping tom” went into the women’s restroom in that area earilier this year in the spring semester.
Sgt. Kohlmeier believes that the campus is safe would also like to see the added security.
The only chance that added security could have been proposed would have been for the election of the Measure C Bond, which passed in 2004 and allows a $350 million budget. The proposal was to be spent on increasing classrooms, structural repairs, as well as improving the lighting.
Funny how the money is prioritized here at RCC. Rather than focusing on a gaudy football field, you would think that improving the lighting and thus heightening security would be a major priority. But no, the beloved game of football is considered more important over the safety of students on campus. Thus, be forewarned female attendees of RCC. By following the guidelines of what has been mentioned earlier, the risks of experiencing an attack are greatly lowered. Just keep in mind your college’s decision on where the money was first decided to go into when stepping out through the darkness of the campus.
