Fullerton : Anti-Suicide Barriers Are Put In at Cal State

In an effort to prevent more suicides, temporary barriers are now in place on the top five floors of Cal State Fullerton’s Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

“We completed work on them last week,” said James Sharp, associate vice president for facility planning and operations. “The work was to make sure there are no more suicides (from the building) until there are permanent (barrier) arrangements.”

In the last seven years, there have been five suicides from the eight-story structure. Two suicides took place from the building this year, in March and October.

Sharp noted that the California State University system recently appropriated $48,000 for permanent barriers to balconies on the building’s top floors. “The permanent barriers will be installed in January, during the intersession, when most students are gone,” he said. “When classes resume in February, the work should be finished.”

The barriers are designed to prevent access to balconies on the fourth through eighth floors. Sharp said the barriers still allow use of the exterior stairwells on the building, which can be used in case of a fire.

The temporary barriers are made of chain-link fences and steel posts. Sharp said the permanent screens “will be grilles, made of metal, which look something like radiator grilles.” He added that the design had been approved by the campus’s master-plan architect “and we don’t think it will detract from the aesthetics of the building.”