Updated: Nov. 24, 8:15 a.m. Minor edits have been made to this story.

Assessment, Intervention, and Management of Safety (AIMS) team is a special team at EC that takes charge of incidents that may threaten a faculty member, staff member, or student.

The AIMS team is an “intervention team that started up in many schools around the country in response to some of the events that have taken place in the last several years in school campuses,” Jan Schaeffer, EC psychiatrist and member of the team, said.

The AIMS team coordinates resources on campus to assist in prevention and early intervention in case any dangerous or threatening situations may occur to a person at EC.

The group recently took action when James Lemus, former EC student, threatened to cause a massacre in campus.

The goal is to “maintain a safe working and educational environment for everyone,” Schaeffer said.

The AIMS team represents both the Torrance and Compton campuses.

It consists of several members, including Police Chief Michael Trevis, Ray Lewis, administration of justice instructor, and Trish Bonacic, director of CalWORKS from the Compton Center, according to the EC website.

The team follows a specific procedure to resolve issues. Schaeffer said they receive a report and talk to the person face to face to fill in any missing information.

“We put our heads together to see if anybody else on the team has heard about that incident or individual to see if there are any reports from other parts of the campus,” Schaeffer said. “We always get back to the person who actually filed the report to let them know.”

The group meets twice a month and the meetings are not open to the public.

An incident report form for staff members and faculty members to submit to the AIMS team are available on the EC website. People can also reach the AIMS team by emailing or calling and asking to meet in person.

Trevis and Community Relations Director Ann Garten declined to comment and instead referred “The Union” to the website.

Kyle Katano, 19 years old, music major, said a safe campus can be attributed to the AIMS team’s duties.

“I’ve never seen them around but I think they’re doing a good job since it means that they are taking care of things before it happens,” Katano said.

Riana Portillo, 19 years old, digital art major, also praised the activity of the AIMS team, even though she did not know the existence of it.

“Keeping yourself in an open place makes you isolated sometimes, so it’s good that a team like that exists,” Portillo said.

The AIMS team can be reached at [email protected].