Would you know what to do if somebody on campus pulled a gun out of their bag in front of you? What if you witnessed a car break in or someone committing vandalism on campus? In light of some recent crime on campus this past month, The Clipper is here to tell you about what is being done to prevent crime and protect students at EvCC.

What Happened:

In April there were two bigger crime incidents that happened at EvCC. The first, according to a Snohomish County Superform by the Everett Police, happened on Saturday, April 4th. A 25 year old homeless man by the name of (Tony Carter) was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm, after shooting a gun near the bushes of Jackson. Nobody was injured. According to The Everett Herald, EvCC staff found damage that they believe was caused by a bullet in a second story window of Grey Wolf Hall. Everett Community College’s website said that the weapon was found later by police buried outside of Shuksan Hall. After a background check, it was confirmed that (Carter) was a convicted violent felon with a firearm restriction. Carter has not spoken about the incident, and “immediately invoked his rights to remain silent and to attorney representation,” according to the Superform.

The second event happened Wednesday, April 8th at about 3:00pm in Whitehorse Hall, during a graphic design class. According to another Superform by the Everett Police, a 23 year old EvCC Student (Tuan Nguyen) entered class and initiated an argument with the instructor. He then accused the instructor of wanting to kill him, and proceeded to draw a knife, and attempted to injure the instructor. Campus security came and cornered the man and took his knife while police were en route to the scene. Whitehorse Hall went into lockdown during the incident, but classes resumed as scheduled the next day.

Ways that Crisis Situations are Currently Handled:

One of the main ways that students are being informed about crisis situations on campus is through the RAVE alert system. According to Katherine Schiffner, EvCC’s director of public relations, the RAVE system sends an alert to student’s school email, but students can sign up to get alerts on their phones with RAVE. Multiple people on campus have access to send out these alerts, and all of the alerts can be sent “from one screen, at any place.” The RAVE system is fairly new to EvCC still, but it has seen positive impact in other campuses. Templates can be set up using this system for emergencies such as fires and earthquakes, to reduce time in creating a message to send out.

Marc Tolle, EvCC’s (something of security) says that EvCC also has in place services that monitor social media for any threatening posts about EvCC, and that every post even if it is benign is taken seriously. Tolle said “with social media the way it is now, you just have to.”

EvCC also holds occasional lock down drills. However, these drills tend to be on Fridays, a time where staff may be on campus, but not many students.

Something that Tolle emphasizes a lot for EvCC students to know is “If you see something, say something.” Right now EvCC has in the works a student reporting site where you can fill out a report form if you see something suspicious involving EvCC, and the report will immediately be sent into the system. This website is in the works right now, and will be up within the next few months says Tolle.

Tolle also said that EvCC has the “infrastructure for a robust camera system” on campus, but security can only purchase cameras when there is enough money in the budget, so right now there are fewer cameras than possible monitoring the EvCC Campus.

Do Students feel Safe?

 While interviewing students, about a quarter of them answered that they knew what the RAVE system was. Student Julianna Bethun claimed that she “thought it works well.” However, the students who did not have RAVE have never even heard of it before.  An overwhelming number of students did say that they feel pretty safe on the EvCC Campus. This is probably because of a theory best explained by Tolle who said “students feel attached to the school” and because of that we “watch out for ourselves and each other.”