Tragedies in California

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday requested a presidential major disaster declaration to help ongoing emergency response and recovery from devastating fires burning in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties. (Photo: Office of Gov. Jerry Brown)

Two students and a former student of California community colleges were among the 12 people killed at the shootings in Thousand Oaks on Wednesday night.

But as college officials were sending the word to their students and staff about the tragedy, they also were preparing to send notice that some of their campuses and centers would close because of approaching wild fires.

Ventura College student Blake Dingman, Moorpark College student Noel Sparks and former Moorpark student Telemachus Orfanos lost their lives Wednesday night during the shooting at a club popular with local college and university students.

“We are deeply saddened. This incident was an immeasurable loss for our community with a rippling impact felt by all of us,” Chancellor Greg Gillespie, chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District, said in a message to the community.

Moorpark students led a vigil on Thursday evening to honor Sparks, Orfanos and others affected by the tragedy. Moorpark professor Wendi Baity remembered Sparks as a “gem of a human being.”

“Noel taught me more than I could ever teach her – she had a gentle spirit and always engaged her classmates,” Baity said. “Noel’s honesty and openness touched us all, and I am forever grateful that our lives crossed paths.”

Preparing for wild fires

As college officials shared with students and staff that counseling would be available, they were already announcing that some of their locations would close Friday and perhaps into the following week because of the fast-moving wild fires.

Other area community colleges also found themselves consoling their community while closing locations to evacuate as the fires moved closer.

On Thursday morning, Santa Monica College (SMC) President Kathryn Jeffery was sending a message to students and employees about the shooting in Thousand Oaks, noting that at the time it wasn’t know if anyone from SMC was injured. But she added that the college community could reach out to SMC’s wellness center or call its hotline for support.

The next day, she sent a message that the college was cancelling some of its off-campus classes in Malibu because of mandatory evacuations due to approaching wild fires.

Serving as a staging area

Other two-years colleges in the areas of wild fires, such as Pierce College, were serving as evacuation centers. (Pierce, which is closed until at least Tuesday because of poor air quality and changing fire conditions, was already at capacity for helping to harbor animals from the fires.)

In the northern part of the state, Butte College will remain closed this week due to another massive wild fire. The college is serving as a staging area for emergency service personnel. In a letter to the community, President Samia Yaqub said that some in the college family have been displaced by the wild fires and even lost their homes.

“Know that you belong to a strong and tight-knit community made up of people who care and support each other in difficult times. We are here for you,” Yaqub wrote, adding that the college will soon set up ways to donate to help affected students, faculty and staff.

At one point, fire surrounded the Butte campus on three sides, with firefighters setting up a fire break and stationing crews around the campus. They successfully kept the fire to the outer perimeter, Yaqub said.

“I am filled with gratitude for the tireless efforts of firefighters and other emergency personnel who are putting their lives in danger to protect us all,” he wrote.

The college was still serving as a staging area for police, fire fighters and even inmates from a local prison to help battle the fires. The college’s football field served as a landing pad for helicopter airlifting burn victims to medical facilities.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office said it will work with colleges forced to cancel classes to minimize any impacts on academic calendars

“Community colleges are centers of hope and strength, and they will play a critical role in the response and recovery of these fires,” Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley said in a statement.

About the Author

Matthew Dembicki
Matthew Dembicki edits Community College Daily and serves as associate vice president of communications for the American Association of Community Colleges.
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