Shhh… There is a Rapist / Murderer on Campus

Sending kids away to college should not be a scary thing for parents, right? I mean, you figure they will be heading to a community where they are protected and taken care of. This is not the case for one family whose daughter mysteriously passed away while at Eastern Michigan University.

By Abby

Not only did the Dickinson family have to deal with the loss of their daughter, Laura, but now, reports are surfacing of foul play surrounding her death that the college was aware of and tried to hide. Big No-No.

The New York Times reports that “for two months after Laura Dickinson was found dead in her dormitory room, Eastern Michigan University officials assured her parents and the public that there was no sign of foul play. It was not until a fellow classmate was arrested in February that the truth came out: Ms. Dickinson had been raped and murdered.”

Um, I would say that is a pretty significant detail since that rapist/murderer was running around campus for that whole time period, endangering the lives of many innocent and unaware students.

The topic of how much information a college should disclose about a possible threat to campus was heavily criticized after the Virginia Tech shootings. Although the feeling of officials not wanting to cause mass panic on campus is semi-understandable, it still does not justify witholding this information, especially from the family.

What’s even more disturbing is that they not only withheld info, but also blatantly lied to the students:

“The state police told university officials that Ms. Dickinson might have been murdered. By 9:30 p.m. [the day of the murder], the county medical examiner had listed the death as suspicious and decided foul play was a possibility. But the next day, the university posted the following on its Web site: ‘At this point, there is no reason to suspect foul play. We are fully confident in the safety and security of our campus environment, and our campus officials will remain vigilant in ensuring safety for all members of our campus community.’” NYT.

I feel strongly that what EMU officials did was deceitful and wrong. My heart goes out to the family and all those who were affected by this tragedy.