Tamana Ansari
@tamana18248646
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The elevator in front of the 2400 building has been broken for almost a year, causing difficulties for its intended passengers, students with disabilities.
Ian Jones, a student at Las Positas College and former editor of The Express, uses a wheelchair. Jones needs to access the 2400 building for his magazine class, and he manages to do that despite the broken elevator.
To get into the classroom, Jones has to go up the hill and around the building. He said that the journey around the building causes many difficulties, including getting tired, being out of the breath, taking longer to get in class, and perhaps being to class late as well.
“My concern is about other special students who don’t have enough strength in their arms to roll their wheelchairs to get in the class,” said Jones.
He smiled, stating that others with disabilities have brought the issue up with campus maintenance and the security office. He noted they haven’t gotten any results.
This photo was taken October, 19 2015. A technician was spotted working on the elevator.
In the past, Jones said there were times when the elevator was broken and then fixed within a few days time. He hopes that the elevator will be fixed as soon as possible for those students who use it to get to class.
Brian Owyoung, a counselor in Disabled Students and Program Services at Las Positas, was surprised that the elevator hadn’t been working for nearly a year.
He said that no one complained to him and the concerns should have come to Student Services in the building 1600 in order to get results.
Owyoung was concerned about how the lack of an elevator has affected students with disabilities. He is certain it has created difficulties for the disabled students and perhaps for others.
Owyoung planned to talk to the college president, but he didn’t know how long it would take to have the elevator fixed.
He thought the process would be expedited to make sure the repairs happened as soon as possible. In the past, when this elevator was broken, it was fixed in a few days, according to Owyoung.
Promising to do his best to improve the situation, Owyoung said he was sorry for the inconvenience to all students, especially disabled students who suffered the most.
“An elevator technician visited the LPC campus on Sept. 18 to perform a regular inspection of the campus elevators,” Las Positas President Barry A. Russell said in an email.
According to Russell, to repair the elevator paper work was completed on Sept. 22. The scheduled date for repairs on Oct. 21. Students will hopefully have access early next week.