San Bernardino County employees gathered Monday to remember their slain colleagues, the same day that the Inland Regional Center reopened more than a month after a terror attack there left 14 dead.
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Speakers at the service Monday at an indoor arena in Ontario, Calif., about a month after the shootings expressed condolences to the family and friends of those killed in the massacre and gratitude to first responders.
Melvin Anderson, who helps shuttle disabled clients for the Inland Regional Center, says he was apprehensive about approaching with news reporters and a police officer outside.
Rudy Giuliani was invited to speak to the gathering because of the former NY mayor’s experience guiding his city back from the previous horror of 9/11. With extra security measures in place, the site is fenced off with guards checking employee badges.
Few of its 600 employees have gone to the office since, other than a brief visit to gather personal belongings a week after the terror attack.
“It’s important that we provide a sense of welcome as well as camaraderie so we can start this year off as best as possible”, her statement said. “We continue to measure the security and we will continue to look at it”, Lavinia Johnson, the centre’s executive director, told reporters outside the facility. Afterwards, the social workers and psychiatric counselors will separate into smaller groups and talk about their feelings.
Warren urged the employees not to bottle up their grief or become bitter and to accept help from others when they need it. The shooting took place in the conference center, which had been rented at the time by the San Bernardino County Division of Environmental Health Services, of which Syed Farook was an employee. He worked with numerous victims who were at the center for a training session and holiday party.
For at least the first week, no visitors will be allowed inside the IRC, Johnson said.
Staff used laptops and iPads to access patient records through a web-based operating system, letting them work remotely and serve a community of children with autism, mentally disabled adults and other clients in what is a largely poor and working-class swath of California.
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The conference building did not reopen Monday, and it’s unclear when it might.
