Message from President Joe Sopcich:
Dear Colleagues,
A few weeks ago the college endured its first – and we hope its only – lockdown experience. Our campus community handled the situation in exemplary fashion. Nevertheless, in the days since the situation occurred, several areas have held debriefings to go over what our strengths were and what we could do to improve. This has proven a tremendous learning experience for all of us.
The JCCC Police department has closed its investigation of the matter, concluding that the two reports of a person with a weapon on campus on Sept. 4, 2014, did not corroborate each other and neither could be substantiated.
As I said in my initial message to you all, I am very grateful for the safe resolution of the situation and the quick, calm actions of JCCC Police, Emergency Preparedness, faculty, staff and students. We are also grateful to the commanders, police officers and officials from Overland Park Police, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson County Park Police, the Kansas Highway Patrol, Johnson County Fire Department and Med-Act, who arrived on campus and assisted in keeping our campus safe.
We learned that our training paid off. We also saw where we could make improvements – for example, how the installation of classroom phones that function as extended public address systems will reinforce messages sent on the public address systems in the hallways. That effort was already underway and should be completed in January.
Our common goal is to make the JCCC campus community the safest learning environment possible. This experience will help us achieve that goal. We appreciate all you do to keep our community safe.
Sincerely,
Joe