How students and teachers are feeling a year after the stabbing
By Casey Challes
Red River College is working with the City of Winnipeg, the Exchange District BIZ and Downtown Winnipeg BIZ to make the Exchange District a safe place to live and work.
It’s been one year since a Red River College instructor was viciously stabbed in the walkway outside the old Public Safety Building on King Street and William Avenue. The instructor was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Police released a sketch of the suspect, but did not make an arrest.
Since the attack, RRC has improved lighting around the campus, installed additional security cameras, increased security visibility and equipment, and enhanced the Safe Walk program.
Safe Walk provides an escort for students, staff and visitors between two points around the campus. There are 42 Safe Walk security phones located in the Roblin Centre and the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute. Safe Walk can also be accessed on the college’s free Mobile Safety app available on the App Store, Google Play and BlackBerry World.
Dan Waters, 49, teaches in the Computer and Information Systems Technology program at the EDC. He works from 2 to 10 p.m. and says he saw immediate changes carried out after the stabbing last year.
“It was shocking, but I was really impressed with how the college dealt with it,” says Waters.
Loveleen Kaursaini, 19, also attends RRC in the evenings and says she doesn’t always feel safe. Kaursaini is in her first year of Business Technology Management at the EDC and catches the bus home at 10 or 11 p.m.
“Sometimes I am afraid when I am alone,” says Kaursaini.
Kaursaini says she saw two girls get into a fight on her bus home last week and that one of the girls had a knife. She says they were punching one another and that the bus driver had to call the police. Kaursaini says she was shaking with fear.
“They didn’t even know each other,” says Kaursaini. “I was so afraid.”
According to Conor Lloyd, Director of College and Public Relations, RRC has seen an increase in staff and students taking advantage of Safe Walk, with more than 120 people using the service downtown every week.
Benjamin Walstra has been a student at RRC for four years. Walstra says he’s content with the safety services on campus. He has downloaded the app and is aware of the Safe Walk program.
“There’s not any more they could do,” said the 27-year-old Business Information Technology student.
For more information on Safety and Security services offered at RRC’s Exchange District Campus, visit https://www.rrc.ca/edc/security/.
