New security measures to protect students
By Emily Alpert Staff Writer
Gilroy – Nighttime security has doubled at Gavilan College after an attempted kidnapping unnerved campus earlier this week.
On Monday at 7:20pm, a female student noticed two men following her as she left a classroom near the football fields and tennis courts. Both were tall Hispanic men with shaved heads, she said, one weighing 150 pounds the second weighing 250 pounds.
She ran across campus, past four buildings and over a bridge, to the library, where she found another student, and asked to use her cell phone.
When the men saw the two women with the cell phone, they ran.
“It’s hard to know what, exactly, they had in mind,” said Jan Bernstein Chargin, director of public information at Gavilan College. “She wasn’t touched or injured in any way, and they weren’t questioned.”
The students called 9-1-1. Sheriffs were dispatched to the scene at 8:09pm, and arrived at 8:30pm, said Deputy Serg Palanov, public information officer.
Sheriffs classified the incident as a possible attempted kidnapping, said Chargin.
Following the incident, Gavilan College has doubled its nighttime security patrol from one person to two, moved some night classes closed to the better-lit center of campus, and recommended that night students park in the main parking lot, Lot A.
To reach campus security, students can dial ’10’ on campus phones found in most classrooms.
Flyers describing the incident, and the suspects, blanketed the campus this week.
“We felt the students had the right to know what was reported, so they could make their own decisions,” Chargin said. “It’s always a good idea to be aware of your surroundings, to be alert and to take somebody with you.”
Students should also avoid “the poorly lit areas on campus, off the main walkway” at night, she added.
Chargin, who has worked at Gavilan since 2001, was not aware of any past attempted kidnappings on campus.
Improved lighting will be installed this fall, she said, as part of the Measure E Project.
Anyone with information may call the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department at 686-3650.
