Recent reports of multiple school violence incidents have highlighted the importance of maintaining campus safety to protect students and their families.
Although school shootings have been common in the US, recent events in the Philippines have taken everyone by surprise. Politicians have responded with typical proposals, such as limiting students’ access to social media, strengthening gun laws, reviewing school security measures and installing fences, metal detectors and CCTV cameras on campus.
While identifying a single main trigger that leads a student to harm or shoot classmates or teachers is impossible, specific interventions can help parents and students, as key educational stakeholders, prepare for these situations.
Since the 1990s, the Clery Act has been a federal law in the US, covering all educational institutions that receive federal funding.
The Clery Act is named after Jeanne Clery, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in her dormitory at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in April 1986. She chose Lehigh because it was near her home. Later, her family discovered that over the past three years, 38 violent crimes – including rapes, robberies and assaults – had taken place on campus. At that time, colleges were not required to publish campus crime data. Jeanne’s parents, Connie and Howard Clery, believed that if they had known about these crimes, Jeanne might not have decided to attend Lehigh.
Under this law, higher education institutions (HEIs) that get federal funding are required to publish and share an Annual Security Report (ASR) with the campus community, prospective students and staff. The ASR provides crime statistics from the last three years, security policies and procedures and details about survivors’ rights and resources related to sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.
Colleges and universities are required to submit crime statistics to the US Department of Education. These data are then published in the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool, which creates quick, tailored reports about campus crime and safety.
Campus safety remains a vital concern for everyone in higher education. The Clery Act establishes uniform standards for classifying, reporting, preventing and responding to campus crimes, as well as for implementing safety policies and procedures.
These statistics help parents and students decide whether to enroll in the HEI and, for those who choose to do so, inform them about the necessary steps to stay safe on campus.
I experienced this while studying at the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1990s. During student orientation, we received a campus map highlighting high-risk areas to help ensure safety when attending classes. The map also marked call box locations and provided emergency and pickup numbers for safety concerns. Students could call the security office to request an escort across campus.
Furthermore, university minivans ran until midnight, offering free transportation for students between buildings, dorms, the cafeteria, the computer center and along a specific route within four blocks of campus.
Pamphlets on sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking are widely available. All campus dormitories and off-campus student apartments include detailed printed instructions for reporting crimes to campus security and, if needed, to the police.
I greatly benefited from the information provided to students, as I lived two blocks off campus and walked or biked to school.
Laws such as RA 7877, RA 11313, RA 10627 and RA 11053 already exist to safeguard students, faculty and staff from sexual harassment, promote safe spaces, address bullying and prevent hazing. HEIs are required to establish dedicated offices, procedures and enforcement mechanisms to uphold these protections. Despite this, data on the implementation of these measures are neither compiled nor reported in a standard format, nor are they publicly accessible online for education stakeholders. Moreover, CHED has yet to compile, organize or share these critical data with relevant stakeholders.
In many areas, HEIs and police do not share crime reports for campus and surrounding areas. Additionally, some student organizations and their supporters oppose working with law enforcement and criticize the police presence on campus.
This means students, faculty and staff are at risk both on and off campus. It also leaves parents and students in the dark about the safety standards at each higher education institution, preventing them from making well-informed enrollment decisions. Typically, this information is sought only after incidents such as hazing and gun violence occur on campus.
Can this be done?
We could start by passing legislation akin to the Clery Act for the more than 200 public universities that benefit from the Free Higher Education law (RA 10931). These public institutions receive significant reimbursements for tuition and miscellaneous fees, which could be used to cover expenses for data collection, the development of campus security and safety plans and student and faculty orientations.
Many state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) already have data and policies and hold student and faculty orientation programs. They only need to compile this information into campus safety and security plans and communicate these plans to students, parents, university personnel and the public to improve transparency and accountability.
As these SUCs and LUCs develop and implement their campus safety and security plans, CHED can introduce a prototype and offer funding assistance to support the more than 1,600 private colleges and universities in doing the same.