Harassment-Bias Incident: SLU's Surprising Concern

Just today at 2:11 pm, the student population of SLU received this email:

All Students, Staff and Faculty,

Saint Louis University has received a report of a bias-related incident involving a SLU student near campus.

A female SLU student reported that an unknown male made a racially charged threat against her in the overnight hours of May 1. The alleged incident took place on Laclede Avenue near the Laclede Street Bar & Grill.

The University has reported the incident to St. Louis Police, and an investigation is under way to ascertain the identity of the individual who allegedly made the statement.

The Dean of Students and the Director of Public Safety have spoken to the student who made the report. Campus Ministry and Student Health and Counseling will provide support as requested.

Jennifer K. Scheessele

Director, Diversity and Affirmative Action

I, it's sad to say, do not usually pay much attention to these types of emails. I think living in this area begins to numb you to certain things; for example, I don't even notice when a siren goes off anymore. I think the same has happened with hearing about crime around campus. Yet, this particular email caught my interest, what intrigued me about the email was the subject of the crime which occurred. It was a verbal threat that was 'racially charged' that did not occur on campus and it was initiated from a (seemingly) non-SLU student. The amount of effort that has been put into the investigation of this occurrence is another thing I found very interesting. It may seem callous or harsh to say that I don't really feel that this amount of police involvement is quite that necessary. I must say the only information that I have of the situation is what was I gained from the above email.

Of course I am not saying that I do not believe active racism to be a very serious issue or offense, but part of me feels that the circumstances and the outcome of this particular incident do not necessarily warrant the degree of attention that it is being given. Something that this brought up in my mind was another recent DPS email that was sent about a sexual assault that occurred on campus between two SLU students. That email is as follows:

All Students, Staff and Faculty,

At approximately 4 a.m. on Saturday, May 1st, a female Saint Louis University student reported to the Department of Public Safety that she had been sexually assaulted at the Grand Forest Apartments.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police were immediately notified and are investigating. The alleged suspects have been identified by police.

Representatives of Student Life, Campus Ministry and Student Health & Counseling are providing support to the female student.

Michael R. Lauer

Director of Public Safety

I personally feel that this incident was one of an extremely severe nature and should have been given a great deal more attention. I am having trouble processing the two instances on the level of severity. With the sexual assault it actually happened in campus property to a SLU student by a SLU student...why does it not receive the kind of publicity that it deserves. Women at this school or any school need to be aware of the constant danger that they are potentially in even at the their very own campus, and unfortunately possibly even at their own residences. I do believe that the racially charged issues that have been occurring on campus are an issue to which the SLU community should be aware, yet I think that simply because there have been a number of issues all within a short period of time they are receiving more attention than necessary. If SLU decides to take care of the well-being and safety of their students, then it needs to be fairly distributed. Racism is a horrible thing that the school should not take lightly or shuffle under the rug, but the same is true for rape and sexual assault. Safety is safety, that does not change depending on the degree of embarrassment the school may feel after an incident.