You’ve probably noticed them all around Ybor City campus…blue emergency call boxes meant to ensure the safety of HCC students, faculty, and staff. The problem is, they are all out of service. This loss of protection is noticed at the Ybor City campus, the only HCC open campus that is surrounded by nightclubs, bars, and a rising homeless population. Students spoke to The Hawkeye to share their opinion on the issue.
Student, Deceni Sauzo stated, “I feel like it’s more prevalent to have them here than it is to have them at any other campus because when it’s night time and there are people at clubs anything could happen and there could be any drunk driver, you don’t know, this world is crazy, stuff happens on the fly.” The concentration of nightlife in Ybor City is immense, when students take night classes, they feel uneasy compared to other campuses.
Another student, Nicolasa Fernandez said, “I think especially here in Ybor they should fix it because there’s a lot of different people not just students around, so a lot of people need that safety.” According to a Saint Leo University study, “robberies, aggravated assault and simple assault have reached an all-time high in Ybor City.” The studies show that the need for these emergency stands have reached an all-time high.
A fellow writer for The Hawkeye, Jason Turner, wrote an article on an alternative to these blue emergency call boxes that the college had implemented. The article will be linked at the bottom of this article. The alternative was an app for Androids and iPhones called, Hawk Guardian. The problem with this is that no one knows about this application, and what happens if your phone cannot access this app or your phone is dead? This is where the emergency stands are needed. Suazo explained a scenario, “say somebody’s phone just died, what if there’s a shooter in like a whole other building and then I’m in this building okay well I can’t call 911.” The point is clear that a phone is not always going to be there to save you. The college holds a responsibility to its’ students that they will take every measure to ensure their safety.
An easy measure the college can take is simply fixing the emergency stands that are already on campus. When a public safety officer was asked what is being done to fix them, he didn’t even know they were all out of service; and did not want to comment on the issue. But student, Flor Cabrera had something to say, “students would probably get really mad knowing that they’re not fixing that considering that safety issues are more on our mind than other issues, so it’s probably better that they start with that first just to calm down students.” School safety in the United States has reached a peak, and HCC students want to know they are safe on their campus.
These emergency stands can serve as a safety outlet in times of crisis, in a press of a button help will arrive. HCC safety did not respond to The Hawkeye on the issue of these emergency call boxes. Hopefully, they will hear their student’s opinions and do something about it. Only time will tell if these stands will be fixed, and student’s questions will be answered.
The guardian of the hawks by Jason Turner: https://www.hawkeyenews.net/student-life/2018/04/09/the-guardian-of-the-hawks/
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