One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.
UCLA shooting prompts concern for faculty training on aggressive students
Students emerge from Young Hall after a lockdown is lifted on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 following a murder-suicide on the University of California, Los Angeles campus.
(
Maya Sugarman/KPCC
)
Students attend a candlelight vigil for professor William Klug at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Los Angeles. A former UCLA graduate student killed a woman in Minnesota before carrying two semi-automatic pistols and a grudge back to Los Angeles, where he fatally shot the young professor on Wednesday he once called a mentor and then killed himself, police said Thursday.
(
Kelvin Kuo/AP
)
Listen
0:52
UCLA shooting prompts concern for faculty training on aggressive students
The news that Mainak Sarkar allegedly killed his former UCLA dissertation adviser sent shockwaves at other college campuses, especially among faculty who’ve dealt with aggressive students before.
“There are people who said, you know, ‘Oh my goodness, now we are not only going to be worried about current students and colleagues, now we also have to worry about former students,” said Peter Krapp, department chair of Film and Media Studies at U.C. Irvine.
UCLA has not said whether Sarkar showed aggressive warning signs while he was a student, and that all mental health counseling records are private, even after a student's death.
As a department chair at UC Irvine, Krapp gets eight days of training a year on how to handle aggressive students and colleagues. He thinks all faculty and teaching assistants need that training.
“We are increasingly rolling out training that trains faculty to recognize signs of stress or signs of not-standard behavior and to refer people,” to address drug abuse, depression or distress, he said.
On Thursday, UCLA offered their professors training on how to deal with aggressive students.
The shooting hit Marissa Lopez hard. She’s a professor of English and Chicano Studies at UCLA. Her 10-year-old son attends a school near campus that was on lockdown Wednesday.
Sponsored message
She said she’s never felt threatened by students or colleagues, but the shooting has planted some fear in her mind.
“I think that I will evaluate students the same way, I would not pass a student because I had some irrational fear that they might shoot me, but it will certainly be something I think about,” Lopez said.
UCLA also sent an email to students and staff that counseling was available.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
