Campus, Long Beach, News

Few students request knives on campus

University Police said they have no written record of giving permission to the 20-year-old male student who displayed a knife in a sociology class Feb. 25.

“I have no written documentation concerning an approval to carry a weapon on campus by any student,” said University Police spokesman Lt. Richard Goodwin.

That’s because requests to carry have been so few and far between that Cal State Long Beach Chief of Police Fernando Solarzano gives students verbal permission to carry weapons. This was the case with the community service officer and student in the recent knife incident, according to Goodwin.

Solarzano also gave permission to an additional two individuals carrying other weapons on campus. One of those individuals is a female staff member who carries a stun gun and the other individual sought permission to carry a gun but only as a courtesy. He was an active duty sheriff’s deputy who is legally allowed to possess the firearm he carries.

Yet it’s likely that several students at CSULB carry pocket knives without ever knowing they needed to ask anyone for consent.

According to an Internet poll conducted over the weekend by the Daily 49er on Twitter, 10 percent of 51 respondents said they carry a knife to school and an additional 12 percent said they used to.

While the California penal code dictates carrying a knife with a blade 2.5 inches or less on campus is legal, a campus regulation says otherwise. According to campus regulation 41301(b)13, carrying a knife without the university president’s permission is a disciplinary offense.

CSULB President Jane Close Conoley said that she’d noticed the contradiction in the student handbook and that a group is working to rationalize the law and the regulation.

The president also said last week she had delegated the task of weapons approval to Solorzano.

“I don’t literally know the number of students who’ve asked for [weapon approval],” Conoley said. “But as I understood, the response is usually not to say, ‘Yes, you can do it,’ but, ‘If you’re not feeling safe, how can we protect you.’”

While investigations into the Feb. 25 incident are ongoing, the police and the administration are unable to share more information. Conoley, who said she believes there should be a zero tolerance weapons policy on campus, did say that the threat assessment of the male student is still ongoing. University Police are monitoring his behavior all of the time.

“Moving forward, I want us to work on our problems,” Conoley said. “If we embrace the notion of justice, we can move forward.”

In an email two weeks ago, Vice President of Student Affairs Carmen Taylor said that there would be two forums held, one of which took place March 10 and the other to take place on Wednesday.

Taylor has yet to tell students what time and where another forum would take place. The administration is still deciding whether to hold the forum at all, according to Michael Uhlenkamp, CSULB’s executive director of news.

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