Are College Campuses Safe?
Shootings, theft, and rapes have been happening on college campuses for years. Parents and students have become increasingly worried about the safety on campuses. The dangers on college campuses have been growing over the past few years with the increasing number of crimes ranging from theft to murder. The Virginia Tech shootings back in April 2007 got many people looking at the safety procedures that colleges are taking to protect the students from something like that happening again. Of course no college can guarantee a safe haven but some colleges are trying to come close (“Campus Safety”).
Ever since the Virginia Tech shootings, school campuses have been more frequently discussing campus safety ideas such as emergency responses and communications. Most colleges have increased the amount of security officers on campuses while also trying newer, high tech security options (Saavedra). For example, colleges are wanting to set up mass text-message alerts to students for when there is an emergency. This would be a notification system that would text message students on their cell phones during a shooting, earthquake, bomb scare, or any other emergencies (Saavedra). Although this sounds like a very good security idea, most colleges don’t have the money or resources to make this idea happen which means they are having to resort to just adding security officers to ride around campus on bicycles with loud speakers to spread the message during emergencies (Saavedra).
In 2002 the U.S. Department of Education stated that there were 16 million students enrolled in 4,200 colleges and universities across the United States (Carr 2). College students, eighteen to twenty-four years old, fell victim to approximately 479,000 crimes committed between 1995 and 2002. Weapons were present in about thirty-four percent of the crimes along with thirty-one percent of robberies involving firearms. A large number of student deaths, however, don’t have anything to do with weapons.
Ever since the Virginia Tech shootings, school campuses have been more frequently discussing campus safety ideas such as emergency responses and communications. Most colleges have increased the amount of security officers on campuses while also trying newer, high tech security options (Saavedra). For example, colleges are wanting to set up mass text-message alerts to students for when there is an emergency. This would be a notification system that would text message students on their cell phones during a shooting, earthquake, bomb scare, or any other emergencies (Saavedra). Although this sounds like a very good security idea, most colleges don’t have the money or resources to make this idea happen which means they are having to resort to just adding security officers to ride around campus on bicycles with loud speakers to spread the message during emergencies (Saavedra).
In 2002 the U.S. Department of Education stated that there were 16 million students enrolled in 4,200 colleges and universities across the United States (Carr 2). College students, eighteen to twenty-four years old, fell victim to approximately 479,000 crimes committed between 1995 and 2002. Weapons were present in about thirty-four percent of the crimes along with thirty-one percent of robberies involving firearms. A large number of student deaths, however, don’t have anything to do with weapons.