Campus Measures to Keep Students Safe
University campuses are often thought of as safe havens where students do not have to worry about much more other than studying, listening to lectures, and passing their next examinations. After all, those are stressful things to worry about by themselves without any other additional elements thrown into the mix. Yet, in the wake of incidents where horrific acts of on-campus violence claimed the lives of several young adults with promising futures, students, parents, and faculty alike now find themselves concerned about whether or not university campuses are actually as safe as previously imagined. Fortunately, schools across the country did not miss a beat in bolstering their security measures to ensure that school grounds remain as secure as possible for their hardworking scholars.
For decades now, campus police forces have been patrolling university grounds in most big and small schools. These forces are typically extensions of the local police force, meaning that police officers who work on campuses are also trained and qualified to work on the city and state’s police force. In fact, many campus police officers attend the same routine police academy sessions as local and state police. These uniformed law enforcement officers act as any police officer would, except that their jurisdiction is primarily on school grounds. They have the authority to issue citations, give warnings, investigate crimes, and make arrests to lawbreakers caught on campus. Within the past three years, many schools have increased the presence of their campus security force to provide additional protection.
Though it already existed on some campuses, emergency alert systems have been introduced or improved upon at many schools after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, where an armed gunman killed 5 faculty members and 27 students, and injured many others, on campus during classes. Now, many universities have put in place an emergency system that alerts students of potential safety issues through e-mail, text messaging, and mobile phone calls within minutes of an incident occurring. This way, all students are aware of possible dangers on campus and can be more wary as they make their way to class or stay in a secure place until the university deems the campus to be free of the threat. This same system is also used on some campuses to alert students to weather hazards, which is especially important in states where snow storms or flooding are common occurrences. With these measures in place, as well as many other varying safety protocols, students can rest easy knowing that their campus is safe again.
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