Attacks raise concerns on OU campus

October 14, 2004
Athens News

A string of sexual assaults on campus in the last month has raised concerns over the safety of students, particularly females, on the streets after dark.

According to three separate crime reports posted in residence halls and other student areas by the Ohio University Police Department, all of the females involved in the incidents were able to flee the scenes physically unharmed. The reports recounted three incidents in which a female was accosted and fondled or harassed by one or more males.

"I don't think [the incidents] are rare or out of the ordinary," said OUPD Assistant Police Chief Mark Mathews. "When you add alcohol to a situation, these things go on." Mathews speculated that alcohol was a major factor in the crimes.

However, Mathews did note that these particular incidents were somewhat rare, because two of them occurred in high-traffic areas of campus, and all three occurred between 11 p.m. and midnight, which is relatively early for most students.

"The last couple incidents were out of the ordinary because they happened right out in the open," he said.

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On Sept. 22, a female student reported being grabbed from the side by an unknown male while walking between Ellis Hall and Alden Library on College Green. The man forced her into the loading dock of Alden Library, but she resisted and the man fled the scene.

Another incident on Sept. 28 involved a female student walking on Richland Avenue near Mulberry Street when a man approached her and put his arm around her, saying he wanted to go home with her. When she told the man to leave her alone, he reportedly fondled her breast as she struggled to walk away.

On Sept. 30, also between Ellis Hall and Alden Library, a female student reported being approached by five seemingly intoxicated males. Two of the men held her hands, while the others lifted up her skirt, shouting obscenities and cheering. She stomped one of the male's feet and was able to flee.

All of the female victims were walking alone.

Click here to read the entire story in the Athens News.

UPDATE! Click on the "Read More..." link below to read a pro-CCW letter to the editor from an OU student.

Related Story:
Ohio Democrats backing College Rapist and Carjacker Protection bills

October 15, 2004
Ohio University Post

Concealed weapons protect, not endanger

by Letter to the Editor

I never understood why some people feel like they should fear concealed carry, and then I saw an article written by a psychiatrist named Sarah Thompson. Basically her article said some people fear that when another person has a gun they will start shooting people because they had a bad day.

She says the reason they feel that way is what mental health professionals call projection. In other words, those people feel that they might start shooting people if they had a gun so they automatically think that a concealed handgun license holder would do the same when they have a bad day. That just doesn't happen. According to her article, "Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot consciously accept. They operate without our awareness, so that we don't have to deal consciously with 'forbidden' feelings and impulses."

Kevin Kovach's worries that "anybody can have a gun," ("Students up in arms about concealed carry law," Oct. 13) just aren't true. The people he should be worried about are the criminals that are going out looking for trouble. Criminals have always carried guns and always will, even if guns are taken from the law-abiding people of this country. There are more guns out there now but at least there are now people who aren't criminals that have them.

Kelli Eads' fear is that when kids get angry, bad things will happen if they carry guns. This could relate to the article that I referred to earlier. Carrying a concealed firearm means that you need to be a responsible person. It isn't for kids, as she seems to suggest. Everyone, whether they realize it or not, is actually safer now that our state joined more that 40 others by giving law-abiding citizens the right to defend themselves.

Criminals -the predator -can no longer identify their prey, unless of course they are in a forbidden-carry zone. They don't know who has guns anymore, which makes them have to worry if they will be shot if they try to rob someone who is walking down the street. If you don't want to defend yourself, then don't, but please don't try to keep others from defending themselves. Nobody with a concealed handgun license wants to shoot another person; they simply want to level the playing field if they are attacked.

-Trevor Buck is a junior biology/ pre-dentistry major.

The article written by Dr. Sarah Thompson is in the OFCC PAC Education Guide, entitled "Raging Against Self-Defense", can be viewed by clicking here.