Ishita Jayadev ‘26 and Amy Jayasuriya ‘26
Copy Editors
Campus Safety currently occupies a nebulous position at The Claremont Colleges as an entity purported to promote the “safety and well-being of students.” Instead, Campus Safety has raised concerns due to their association with the police and inadequate response to health crises.
Specific concerns about Campus Safety’s association with the police have only become amplified within the past year due to the heightened repression of pro-Palestinian student protests at the 5Cs, including the arrest of 19 students on April 5 at Pomona College. More recently, Scripps College stationed Campus Safety and private security around The Motley immediately after its indefinite closure from Oct. 5-7 and both inside and outside Denison Library since Oct. 16.
All interviews conducted for this article were held before Oct. 5. The Scripps Voice interviewed a former Scripps student, Ellis O’Brien, who had dealt with Campus Safety multiple times, and a current Scripps Residential Coordinator (RC), who requested to remain anonymous due to concerns regarding administrative retaliation, to understand and interrogate Campus Safety’s current roles and responsibilities at The Claremont Colleges.
Campus Catch-all
When asked how the Campus Life team communicated about Campus Safety to student Residential Life staff, the RC said they were told to advertise them as a student safety resource. “They are supposed to be our sort of catch-all in the case of an emergency or to transfer us to an alternative person like the Admin on Call [formerly Dean on Call],” they said.
They clarified that all RCs and community coordinators (CCs) have two meetings with Campus Safety as part of their training before the semester begins. “We have a session where we meet with a couple of the Campus Safety officers and we’re able to ask them questions about what their jurisdiction is, how they see their role working with us, and what they’re supposed to do on campus.”
“In my previous year,” they continued, “We talked to them about changing their uniforms, because that was a big point of contention. Students don’t feel safe seeing Campus Safety on campus because they looked like police officers, which is very triggering for many individuals. So they talked about how they heard that feedback, and changed their uniform, and changed their badges to be purple so that they [are not] associated with the police.”
Despite this, the Campus Safety website publicizes its working relationship with the Claremont Police Department. This relationship was demonstrated on April 5 when Campus Safety actively assisted in the detainment of student protesters prior to their arrests.
The RC elaborated further on how they thought Campus Safety was given jurisdiction over too many aspects of student life.
“I think it’s difficult for one organization to be responsible for the health and safety and security of five institutions that all have different policies,” they said. “And so I think that they’re overstretched in what they are expected to report to. And I wish that there was some sort of institutional structure that prioritized mental health and students’ well being that was separate from safety and security.”
Mental Health and Campus Safety
O’Brien detailed their own traumatic experiences with Campus Safety, specifically when they needed mental health support. They talked about how a concerned friend back home had called Scripps after realizing O’Brien was depressed, resulting in multiple Campus Safety officers coming to their room the next night after they had just gotten out of the shower and eventually taking them to a psychiatric hospital without prior notice.
“I was basically standing in my towel and they were like, ‘is this you? We got a report saying that there was a student here that needed help,’” O’Brien said. “And I was like, um, yeah, that’s my name. And they’re like, well we need to talk to you. And I was like, okay, can I have a couple seconds?”
They elaborated on how Campus Safety told their roommates to exit the room, leaving them alone inside. “I was literally shaking like I was so anxious because I was just freaked out,” they said. “[It was] just scary to see, basically police outside of my dorm, looking for [me].”
They continued to recount how Campus Safety questioned them, saying, “It felt super intrusive. It was super scary. I didn’t really wanna trust them that much, but I knew that my friend [back home] knew about what I was going through, so I kind of had to go along with it.”
O’Brien emphasized that this situation could’ve been handled more sensitively. “It would’ve been way better if it was like a counselor or something that was there, or someone a little bit more friendly,” they said. “Because camp sec had no idea how to deal with something like this, and if they were trained, they weren’t trained well because I don’t think they had the compassion to deal with this.”
O’Brien also talked about how Campus Safety misled them into believing that they would be taken to a medical hospital and instead drove them to a psychiatric hospital with no prior warning or preparation.
“I trusted them. And I was a new student. I was a freshman. I had never dealt with camp sec before. I never had any interactions with them, personally at least,” they said. “So I mean, I’m not usually trusting the police, but I was like, okay, maybe they’re different from the police. Because they’re campus security, you know?”
They emphasized how this made them unprepared to be taken to a psychiatric hospital for almost a week. “I literally had nothing,” they said. “I had my pajamas on and my coat ‘cause they said it was cold outside. And they were like, that’s all you need. Maybe your phone, and any medicine that you’ll need. So I took that.”
O’Brien elaborated on their experience being driven to the psychiatric hospital. “They showed up in an actual cop car,” O’Brien said. “Like a cage and everything in the back. I don’t know what it’s called, but there was a screen and I felt like a criminal. And I was there for mental health reasons. I already felt like a bad person, you know? … I was already in such a bad situation. And then I just felt so much worse after that.”
They stressed that the handling of this situation was inappropriate. “I didn’t need to be put in a cop car and policed, like [I was being] taken to prison — not that anyone does,” they said. “But this was a super different situation. I wasn’t being aggressive. I was a scared kid. I was 18.”
O’Brien also talked about their experience calling Campus Safety after a head injury without realizing what other options were available to them. “[Campus Safety] were like, you have to be in the ambulance,” O’Brien said. “And I was like, okay, I can’t afford an ambulance. But they didn’t really care about that.”
They elaborated on how they wished Campus Safety had outlined alternatives other than being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. “I wish they had maybe asked like, Hey, do you have a friend that can drive you,” they said. “But no, it was just like, we’re taking you in an ambulance. And it wasn’t like I was knocked out or anything like that. I get like in certain situations you need an ambulance, but in this one I didn’t really need one.”
They noted an additional consequence of the experience:, “I had to pay for everything out of pocket. And I did end up going into debt. It was a really hard time ‘cause I was already struggling with the financial situation at Scripps anyways.”
Alternatives to Campus Safety
When asked how they envision less damaging health support, O’Brien compared it to when they got COVID-19 at the beginning of their first year. “When I had COVID, it was a very similar situation where you had to basically get picked up and shipped to a place,” they said. “And there was a screen and everything ‘cause you obviously didn’t wanna get anyone sick, but it was an actual person that wasn’t campus security, and who knew how to deal with the situation.”
They emphasized, “It was specialized. I had time to prepare … And I think they could have had something like that [during my mental health crisis], like a specific person to deal with these situations.”
They offered numerous other solutions that would’ve felt safer for them. “There could have been so many other ways to go about it,” O’Brien said. “I mean, all of them would’ve been scary, but at least I would’ve felt more comforted. Maybe someone could understand what I was going through and make me feel like I wasn’t crazy or needed to be locked up or something like that ‘cause that’s kind of what it felt like to me.”
They also elaborated on how isolating the whole situation was for them. “I felt like I was the only person that had ever gone through that,” they said. “And then I talked to the Dean of Students and she was like, no, this happens all the time. And I was like, it would’ve been nice to know because they made it feel like I was the only person.”
O’Brien echoed the RC’s earlier thoughts on Campus Safety handling too many aspects of student life.
“I think that there should be more specialized people for different situations,” they said. “If it’s like a mental health crisis, there should be specific people that take care of mental health crises. If it’s a general health crisis, there should be specific people taking care of that, that are trained in those specific areas. I think camp sec is given way too much power.”
On Oct. 21, when asked if they had any additional thoughts given the recently changed environment at Scripps, the RC gave a statement: “It is clear the administration is scared of the student body. They are treating students entering Denison like they are armed criminals — an approach that is both inexplicable and unjustified. Such actions not only undermine the trust that should exist between students and the administration but also create an atmosphere of fear. I have talked to many students who feel scared to be on campus with increased security presence. They feel like they are constantly being watched and policed at their home.”
Photo Courtesy: Frances Walton ’26
