SACRAMENTO, Calif — The Los Rios Community College District is working to ensure safety at American River College in Sacramento. The district is increasing police presence on campus.
District leaders say a former student, Jamie Barnes, left more than 300 racist and threatening voice messages, targeting the college president, Melanie Dixon, and other staff members in March.
Los Rios police arrested Barnes last week for the second time for violating a temporary restraining order.
Police also sent an email alert to students and staff with Barnes' photo attached on Thursday, informing the Los Rios community that Barnes was released from jail Wednesday night.
"We want to be safe when we come to work," said Dr. Debra Crumpton, president, Black Faculty and Staff Association. "We want to know about known threats and we want to know it, in such a way, that we can take immediate action to protect ourselves, students, and communities."
The Los Rios Community College District is partnering with the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA) on improving safety, transparency, and leadership commitment. The association sent the district a list of demands in response to the racist incident last month.
"It's really our goal to not only improve the conditions and opportunities for all employees but also for our Black students," Crumpton said. "This (former) student's name and photo should have been circulated a long time ago. Now, the district is being responsive, and this is great. This is how it should be and how it must stay."
There's no evidence that Barnes returned to campus. The district plans on pursuing a permanent restraining order at a hearing scheduled Apr. 20 for further proceedings.
The Los Rios Community College District sent ABC10 Race and Culture Team a statement, in full, reading:
"Los Rios remains committed to maintaining a safe environment for students and employees at American River College and at all of the campuses in our district. We have increased police presence at ARC in response to this threat and are pushing hard through all available legal channels to make the restraining order against Jamie Barnes permanent. Regarding the set of demands shared by the Black Faculty and Staff Association, we are sincerely grateful to that group of committed educators for their work to make Los Rios a better place for our Black employees and students. We have shared an initial response to their demands with the group and have been in constant communication with them. We look forward to working together to improve the culture and climate for Black employees at Los Rios."