LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Students returned to College of Southern Nevada for the spring semester on Tuesday with heavy hearts following the shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas last December.
Although the tragic events took place on another college campus, it still hits close to home for the CSN community. Pio Rejas, the CSN student body president, is still shaken from the shooting.
“It’s definitely an experience I’ve never been through and hope to never go through again,” Rejas said.
Rejas said his girlfriend was on the UNLV campus the day of the shooting.
“My girlfriend was taking classes at the business building so it was definitely terrifying,” Rejas said.
CSN also went on lockdown when word got out about an active shooter at UNLV.
“CSN was completely shut down for the day,” Rejas said. “We helped the staff members get the students out of the Student Union and other buildings.”
Rejas said campus safety has now taken on a completely different meaning.
“Student government and staff had to go through UPD training and see what we do in emergency situations if something like that happens at CSN,” Rejas said.
Dr. James McCoy, Vice President of Academic Affairs at CSN, said there’s no doubt security measures are top of mind for the CSN community.
"UNLV and CSN are sister institutions," McCoy said. "As a result of that, we share students and we share faculty."
The two schools also share the same university police services. That's why McCoy said there's a bigger security presence on both campuses.
"We're as safe as we possibly can be, but there's even more doubling down of efforts led by the university police system," McCoy said.
RELATED LINK: How students are impacted during University Police Services staffing shortage
Rejas hopes security efforts continue in order to prevent another tragedy.
"You see social media. You see the news and you never expect this would be so close to you and it could happen to you," Rejas said.
Any student currently enrolled at CSN is also eligible for free counseling and psychological services available both in-person and online.
