DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Students at Bethune-Cookman University, like many other schools across the country, are taking part in homecoming this week. While it’s usually a time of celebration and seeing old friends, safety is a priority this year.
Bethune-Cookman University safety officials are making sure homecoming goes off as planned violence-free.
This comes after five people were shot last week, four of them students at a Morgan State University’s homecoming in Baltimore. All homecoming activities at that HBCU were canceled.
Then on Saturday, during their homecoming weekend, two people were shot at Bowie State University. It’s another HBCU about 20 miles south of Baltimore.
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At this point, no one has been arrested in either case.
“I’m really excited about homecoming. I’m mostly excited about the food, to be honest. There’s going to be a lot of vendors out,” said B-CU senior Don’Neisha McFadden, who is also Miss Bethune-Cookman University.
McFadden said the news of the shootings at Morgan State and Bowie State scared her.
“It made my heart freeze kind of because it could have been us,” said McFadden.
Gary Price is B-CU’s campus safety director and he said they’ve added patrols on campus, especially this week for homecoming.
“We will continue to stand watch here to make sure that doesn’t happen here,” said Price. “We are the first responders, campus safety, then we have Daytona Beach Police Department, as well as another independent company that comes out.”
Back in August, Gov. Ron Desantis said the state planned to give a million dollars to Edward Waters University in Jacksonville to increase security on campus after authorities said Ryan Palmeter, a white man, shot three black people in a racially motivated attack at a Dollar General Store.
He was first spotted at the historically Black Edward Waters University less than a mile away. Before his shooting rampage, he was asked to leave by a campus officer who thought he looked suspicious.
“We are making contact with the legislative branch that’s going to reach out to make sure that we get some of the funding to improve our overall infrastructure here as it relates to campus safety,” said Price.
We’re going to keep asking the Governor’s office if there are plans to add more funding to other HBCUs in Florida to address safety and we’ll let you know when we hear back.
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