For National Campus Safety Awareness Month in September, around 92 first-grade students from NSU University School visited NSU’s Public Safety Office on Sept. 18.
The students took a tour through four stations Public Safety set up. Inside the building, students visited a locksmith room where keys to NSU are held, a dispatch room with access to cameras on campus and a photo booth with balloons. Outside, officers from the Davie Police Department showed students their cars and trucks.
Zulema De La Cruz, community relations coordinator, said Public Safety has access to more than 1,000 cameras, which the students got to see.
“They put all the cameras pointing at the U-School today,” De La Cruz said.
Teresa Crawford, manager of training, said the students were invited to show them how Public Safety protects them.
“It shows them that Public Safety is friendly and we’re here to support them,” Crawford said.
Lihi Elmakias, senior psychology major and dual admission law student, is a public service aide for NSU. Elmakias helped make the decorations for the photo booth.
“Everyone was excited to do it. It’s like a break. We can unleash our creative side instead of just doing paperwork. We get to like paint and decorate, so it was fun,” Elmakias said.
Melanie Gomez, emergency management coordinator, enjoyed the questions and the students’ reactions. When Gomez asked them why Public Safety has so many cameras, one of them answered, “to catch bad guys,” and another said it was in case accidents happen.
“I am glad that he said that because I don’t want them to think that what we do is only because there’s bad people out there,” Gomez said. “I’m glad that at such a young age, he’s aware and completely 100% understands that accidents do happen.”
We enjoyed hosting the University School students in our Facilities Management offices. We look forward to hosting many more in the future.