TCC practices putting safety first

tccsafetyNo one knows what was in the mind of Cho Seung-Hui on that cool, snowy April morning.

Obviously, his mind was set on killing, and those killings had been planned weeks in advance of the actual murders.

We also will never know the whys as to the events that unfolded on the Virginia Tech Campus.

Cho wanted retribution for wrong doings, revenge on women who had shunned him, destruction on those who were rich and spoiled, death for all who had ignored him.

This merciless act will forever be remembered for its senselessness. Yet, despite its senselessness, the carnage has sent yet another wake-up call to school officials across the world.

Other Chos are among us. They could be students at TCC. Troubled souls seem to gravitate to schools—elementary grades through college. School administrators everywhere began to question if their campuses were safe from such attacks.

Nevertheless, we all must do what we can to protect ourselves, and we commend our TCC administrators for devising a plan to help protect our college community from the Chos of the world.

Within 24 hours of the horror, Chancellor Leonardo de la Garza informed TCC people that steps had been taken to ensure safety on our campuses. We were told that every effort would be made to inform us of any pending danger.

TCC police are making presence more visible now. They are not only patrolling campus roads and parking lots more frequently but are walking through campus building and across the interior campus areas.

In classes Tuesday following the murders, faculty and students talked about the chances of something similar to Virginia Tech happening here. Where could we go and where could we hide?

Unfortunately, no one can protect us from such madness, but at least we were trying to establish protocol is such at attack occurred.

But in Texas, a more immediate danger could be weather. Metroplex residents are not equipped or prepared for traveling on ice since it rarely occurs in this area. And tornadoes and hail storms are frequent spring dangers.

Just last week we saw our campuses facing stormy weather with possible tornado activity. Campus police, administrators, faculty and staff all participated in ensuring the safety of students on our campuses.

Students were led to safe rooms to wait out the storms. Personnel were told to protect themselves from the possibility of flying glass. Police walked the hallways advising people of the latest weather updates.

Some students and workers were allowed to leave early when the rain abated before more storms moved in.

While we cannot compare a storm to the destruction of Cho, we can conclude that TCC is alert to the needs of our campuses.

We may not be able to stop a Cho, but we can at least try to protect ourselves from all monsters, be they human or natural disasters.