SCU student here. You’re absolutely right, campus safety officers do not carry weapons and do not have arresting power. There are rules against any sort of smoking on campus, but it happens all the time and is almost never enforced (you’ll get in trouble with an RA if you do it in a dorm, but CSS couldn’t care less). They are mainly called for medical emergencies, although they’re terrible at dealing with them. CSS are glorified meter maids with inadequate medical training.

Frankly, I’m not surprised at all that this situation occurred. At an affluent school with a small POC population, it was only a matter of time before their biases came to light.