By J.C. Casarez
Public safety should be a high priority concern for everyone at East Los Angeles College.
Students and faculty should feel safe on campus at all times of day, but because of the construction taking place on campus, the safety of all has been compromised.
With ongoing construction taking place, many walkways and routes students use to get to and from class have changed. Some of these temporary routes are dark and lonely depending on how late in the day they are used.
It can get confusing as the walkways seem to change from day to day. Students who attend class twice a week will notice what was there yesterday is gone tomorrow.
While this may seem like nothing to be alarmed about, it is something that happens without students being made aware about the changes.
The more important issue is that these areas must be patrolled or monitored by cadets or sheriffs on campus to assure that all is well. Due to construction, security attention has been divided between the new parking structure and other buildings.
So now that there is more area to patrol and less visibility in others, what is being done to keep Elans safe on campus? Patrols should use every measure to assure that no student gets robbed.
The incident that happened a few weeks back when someone attempted to rob a student near the F7 building should raise safety awareness-issues.
According to the ELAC website, a bulletin on the main page indicated that this was the second attempt of this type near that area of campus. While the alert on the website does help spread the message, more should be done to prevent this from happening again.
Just last week a fence was placed alongside the E7 building blocking the view to the bookstore. This should be a concern because students who leave the E7 building late or walk alongside the fence can’t be seen.
Another area of concern is the walkway from the library toward the S2 building alongside the old auditorium. The area is now less populated because of fencing, and is not visible as the day goes on.
These areas require more attention to make people feel safe as they walk through campus. By no means should sheriffs on campus be blamed. It is the district officials who are entrusted with students’ safety.
The question must be asked what student groups such as ASU are doing to spread the word and prevention during this period. I think students can benefit from ASU taking a more active role in crime prevention by spreading the message of this matter to all.
The message here is to all parties to take an active role and learn from what occurred to prevent it from happening again. Students at ELAC should continue to feel safe no matter what time of the day they attend class.