Mesa Legend - NEWS 3


Volume 40, Issue 6. Today is .

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Volume 40, Issue 6
November 19, 2002

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Shooting's aftermath heightens awareness
By Ian Schwartz
Mesa Legend

A seemingly regular day for many at the U of A quickly erupted into the most violent act in the university's history.

The morning of Oct. 28, Robert S. Flores, a nursing student at the U of A, entered the nursing building with five guns and over 200 rounds of ammunition.

Flores stared his destructive spree by fatally shooting nursing 50-year-old teacher Robin Rogers who was doing class work in her office.

After shooting her, Flores moved two floors up to silence his next victims.

45-year-old Barara Monroe and 44-year-old Cheryl McGaffic, both nursing instructors, were administering a mid-term, which Flores was supposed to be taking.

Both were shot in front of the 30 students in class; both women had shots to the chest and head.

Students report Flores asking Monroe if she was "ready to meet her maker?"

She replied "yes" and the was shot.

This violence has shake up the college community as well as many across the nation.

Does MCC have any of these problems on the horizon?

And if so, how equipped is MCC to deal with an act of that magnitude?

According to Steve Corich, chief of Campus Safety, the day after the shootings in Tucson, "a half dozen teachers and some department heads contacted campus securityl"

Many of the professors expressed concerns about students that may be expressing the same attitudes that Flores did before he went on his rampage.

Several of the U of A nursing students said that Flores was rude, moody, and often talked back to instructors.

Some of these complaints at MCC are more pressing that others and are being handled in order of importance.

Many of the teachers that came forward witnessed a certain behavior by a student, but until recently this was nothing to be concerned with.

After the U of A shooting, teachers are now paying more attention to possible disgruntled students.

With an incident of this type, there is really no way to predict when and where it may happen.

Nobody could have predicted what Robert Flores was going to do that day.

The best students and faculty can do is try to identify a possible threat before it explodes.

Other than maintaining awareness of potential harm, MCC has take other steps to ensure the safety of everyone on campus.

Corich said, "We have tightened our relationship with Mesa PD so they can quickly respond to a shooting, if it were to take place here on campus."

He went on to say that security across the board has been tightened.

MCC has several highly trained officers on campus with three more new employees on the way.

Some of the new employees will be sent to other campuses.

Although none of the officers on campus carry fire arms, the possibility of employing armed security personnel has been discussed recently with the community colleges across the Valley.

All three universities in Arizona have armed police officers, which may be the reason Flores stopped when he did.

Many MCC students didn't fear going to school but still felt remorse for those involved, "You can't let what one person does ruin your whole experience. It is really sad what happened," said MCC student Beverly Lima.

Cobra Lucio felt that campus security should be stepped up.

"I think they should tighten security here, the guy just walked in the place with a lot of guns."