On May 6, the student government held their second safety forum to give updates and to continue hearing opinions concerning the purchase of AR-15 style rifles for campus police.
As opposed to an unlimited amount of time at the podium, each speaker was only given three minutes before they would be forced to yield their time to the next speaker.
After last week’s forum students and faculty were left in an uproar, it was clear that a second meeting would be imperative. Held in building 410, the forum held roughly 70 audience members, attendees were only given three minutes to share their views on the topic, with overflow being redirected to a secondary space to watch the meeting live via zoom.
It was brought up by students that the space was too small and didn’t allow all students the opportunity to witness the meeting in person.
Many students remain unhappy with the way upper management and the police have conducted themselves since the previous forum. César Tlatoāni Alvarado, elected student trustee, was among those students sharing his grievances to students and staff.
“Last week I had an encounter with Chief Florman where she asked me when my term was going to be over and when the next student trustee would come in and when our student government would be turning over,” said Alvarado. “Those were the only questions that she asked me and she and her colleague walked away. There has been a lot of talk on this campus about waiting us out. You will not wait us out!”
ASL tutor, Joey Perez, used his time to express how the use of AR-15s on campus could be detrimental from the perspective of a hard of hearing person.
“I feel like this [police rifle]training is serious and attention should be paid, that way you can understand how to deal with the proceedings on campus whether they be hearing students or hard of hearing students,” said Perez. “What if someone is using their hands to communicate, and maybe they’re having a bad trip or they’re not, maybe they’re behaving out of line and they get shot?”
That being said, not all students feel as strongly about the use of AR-15s in the hands of campus police. According to a questionnaire provided by faculty, out of the 1,282 students who responded, 46% of students agree with the idea of police rifles on campus, 41% disagree and 12% remain unsure with how they feel about the issue.
A slide from the faculty’s presentation depicting the results of a recent poll that was conducted.
Despite the student body remaining on the fence over the issue, the overwhelming majority of audience members stood avidly opposed the issue. One student could be heard audibly correcting the faculty every time a “police rifle” was mentioned. “AR-15s,” said the student.
Despite outside facilitator, Andre Bossieux, being brought in to help keep things cordial between the two parties, the relationship between the faculty and audience remained tense.
“At the end of the day there’s a lack of transparency and open communication,” said student Malak Abdelmuati while speaking to Chief Foreman. “So what is it that Mt. SAC is going to give me? You have to give me smth tangible to work with. This blind “faith-trust”… that’s not how we operate.”
Although many are interested in a third meeting, no date has been set at this time. As for the decision over whether or not AR-15s will be allowed on campus, that ultimately falls onto the lap of the Board of Trustees.
