Cerritos College campus police officers arrive to work everyday, unprepared.

However, the problem is not that they don’t want to protect the 25,000 plus people that are on campus any given semester, rather that they haven’t been given the means to do an adequate job.

As apathetic souls roll their eyes, consider this: Cerritos College is one of only three community college campuses in the state of California that do not authorize its campus police officers to carry a firearm while on duty.

This decision remains intact, even after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a blueprint for safer campuses, which states, “Institutions with a sworn law enforcement agency should ensure their officers have access to a range of use of force options, including lethal (firearms).”

The governing parties of the college have not even voted on the issue in more than twenty years.  In the meantime, 11 of the state’s college campuses armed their officers after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that claimed 13 lives, 12 of them belonging to students.

Even more surprising is that during the initial meetings set to distribute these findings to more than 200 classified employees of the college, only 17 attended last Wednesday’s afternoon presentation and six attended in the evening.

Their vote, which can set the tone of the issue, will take place this Wednesday.

While the student vote is expected to take place next month, one thing is clear: It’s time for us to take matters into our own hands, for the sake of our lives as well as the lives of the 10 fully certified officers sworn to watch over us.

Students rush from the parking lots to their classes and back within a matter of a few hours.  Campus police officers are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as each on-duty officer is assigned to watch over more than 7,500 people at a time.

Sending them out unarmed to do a job that can become life-threatening at any moment is both misguided and reckless.

We expect them to protect us to the fullest extent of the law without giving any thought as to how we can protect them.

This is a campus-wide discussion that should be taking place in every hallway, around every watercooler and within every classroom of Cerritos College.  Students need to urge faculty members to challenge every committee and decision-making board on campus to listen up and speak up for our safety.

We learn how take charge of every aspect of our lives as part or our college education.  This time, the issue has come down to making sure our lives are properly protected.