Mt. San Jacinto College has added trained building captains and area commanders to its campus safety program, giving the college's more than 30,000 students a new layer of emergency response at its Murrieta-area campuses.

Campus Safety Director Dave Paseman told The Talon Student News the college uses a "multi-layered security approach." Officers from Campus Safety and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department are stationed at each campus during operating hours. The department monitors entrances, parking lots and public areas with 24/7 closed-circuit cameras.

The building captains and area commanders lead on-site responses during emergencies and drills. They receive Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) instruction, first aid, CPR and Stop the Bleed training. Several have completed a six-week program with Temecula's emergency response department.

During emergencies, MSJC pushes instructions through public address systems, text alerts and email, Paseman told The Talon. Classrooms and offices carry emergency flip charts with procedures for various scenarios.

MSJC follows the Department of Homeland Security's "Run-Hide-Fight" guidance. But Donovan Gallatin, an A.L.I.V.E. Active Shooter Survival instructor with E3 Safety, told The Talon the model has not kept pace with evolving threats.

"The most important thing is teaching people the pre-incident indicators to see it happening before you have to apply run, hide, fight," Gallatin told The Talon.

He argued situational awareness training should be a standalone session, helping people recognize unusual behavior on campus and online. Gallatin stressed reporting actions, not individuals, to avoid stereotyping. That means flagging behavior such as a student obsessively following another person or a sudden fixation on violence on social media.

The Talon cited data from Omnilert showing up to 99 incidents in which guns were brandished with intent or fired on K-12 and higher education campuses as of June 5, 2026. That figure represented 42% of the 233 total campus incidents recorded in all of 2025.

The college's enrollment figure comes from its November 2025 State of the College report. Students and staff can reach Campus Safety or on-site deputies at 951-639-5188. A text line for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is available at 951-537-7832. In any emergency, call 911.