Clark Atlanta Students Want Campus Fenced In
ATLANTA
Danielle Stubbs enrolled at Clark Atlanta University with higher learning as her top priority, not personal safety.
“When I first came here, I felt safe,” says Stubbs, a 22-year-old junior from the Bahamas. “After experiencing two shootings, I don’t feel comfortable. This school would be a better place if we were guarded better.”
A rash of car thefts, vandalism and shootings around campus, committed almost entirely by people with no ties to the historically Black college, has prompted students like Stubbs to demand that the school do more to protect them. Many want security fences erected around campus.
Some of the most violent crimes have occurred this semester. In January, a man who didn’t attend the college was shot in a barbershop on campus. In March, a student was killed during a shootout while trying to recover her stolen car near the school.
School officials say they have responded by forming a campus watch group with the help of the city’s police and the Atlanta University Center council, which includes neighboring Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Spelman College and the Morehouse School of Medicine.
