Photo by Sean Keenan | The Signal
In the wake of the Jan. 28 armed robberies at Library North, Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA) has once again turned Senate talks to student safety.
SGA President Sebastian Parra told his council of senators last Thursday that he’d reached out to University President Mark Becker and Vice President of Student Affairs to get to the root of this scary issue.
Becker, who quickly enacted a list of safety precautions for the library, has not yet contacted Parra. But Parra told The Signal that he supports Becker’s choice to up the police presence and add more security cameras, among other efforts.
“I hope Becker reaches out to us,” he said. “Those are great decisions. But we aren’t part of the conversation yet. Just after 7 that morning, as soon as [the robberies] happened, I emailed Dr. Becker and Dr. Covey and said, ‘What are we going to do?’”
Parra spitballed ideas for potential initiatives, such as installing more surveillance cameras — look at the ceiling in the library’s third and fourth floors — and effecting a gun-detector security system.
Parra said Dr. Covey wants to meet to discuss potential plans of further action, and Becker outlined plans to host campus safety forums in his recent campus broadcast. (The Signal has requested to host one or two of those forums with Becker).
After Jan. 14’s armed robbery in the library, Parra met with Georgia State University Police Department’s Crime Prevention Specialist Sgt. Sharon Ware. He and Ware were scheduled to meet two days prior to the incident to assess the first case.
“We’re hoping to meet again with Sgt. Sharon Ware this Thursday, and the director of housing soon too,” he said.
And when talk arose of whether or not SGA would still advocate to make the library a 24-hour study space, SGA VP of Public Relations Anthony Nguyen said the recent robberies could throw a wrench in those plans.
“That should be the least of our concerns right now,” he said. “I’d like to see more active [police] patrols throughout each floor.”
VP of Academic Affairs David Jackson said Thursday that Atlanta’s diverse makeup will always be unpredictable, so we need to build a strong community for our police force to be effective.
“Atlanta is a global city, we are not going to stop crime,” he said. “Georgia State has a very strong police force on campus. We need something — like MARTA — a ‘see something, say something’ campaign.”
Sen. Justin Brightharp warned the SGA Senate that two state legislators are pushing for “campus carry” laws to allow firearms or stun guns on school grounds. He and Parra claim the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents is not in favor of arming students.
Parra said, to overcome this worry of gun violence, the student body must not act in fear, but rather unity.
“Do not be afraid to study,” he said. “We are here to study and we are more 30,000 law-abiding students. We’re not gonna let a few criminals brand our student body. We’re not gonna give our legislators a tool to say ‘Georgia State’s unsafe; we need a bill to get them weapons.”
Parra and I are currently waiting to hear if Becker will be free to meet with us this week for a round table discussion on student safety.
SGA President Sebastian Parra said, “Do not be afraid to study. We are here to study and we are more 30,000 law-abiding students. We’re not gonna let a few criminals brand our student body. We’re not gonna give our legislators a tool to say ‘Georgia State’s unsafe; we need a bill to get them weapons.’”
So, maybe a student under attack can simply repeat Parra’s magic words and repel an armed criminal? Yeah, can’t you feel the empowerment?
Don’t you think we are giving too much power to the police or the Georgia states cops. They didn’t stop the crime on the street, what make you think they will stop the crime in the library. People are still getting rob going to class or home or to the train station.