By Ülvi Gitaliyev
The relationship between The Berea Torch and Berea College has been confrontational, to say the least. Ironically, even though we are an unrecognized organization, we have to deal with college administration more than any other club. Other than Student Life and their backfiring emails, there is Public Safety or, as we at The Berea Torch like to call them, Public Menace. We appreciate that they always find the time in their busy schedules to tear down our posters and so, have decided to dedicate every Monday to stories about Public Menace.
On Sunday, we asked on Bereans Gone Wild: Cult Edition! if they had any interesting interactions with Public Menace that they would like to share. Within a few hours, we received multiple stories. Here are a few of them:
Isaac Duane Sexton wrote how he, a physically disabled student, was given two tickets within two days for parking at a handicap spot. Luckily, ticket-loving Public Menace voided the ticket after coming to their senses so, maybe there is hope for the rest of us. The issue with parking is something that I hear about on an almost daily basis. As previously reported on The Berea Torch, students who park outside of campus for just a few minutes run the risk of getting ticketed by Public Menace. Worst of all, if you do not pay their fines, then Berea College will hold your degree hostage even years later.
Tiffany Ann, a graduate from Berea College, shared a story about how Public Menace treated her after a sexual assault:
“How about the time I was assaulted on campus and found incoherent the next day and they took me back to the main door of my residence hall and dropped me off without making sure that I actually made it inside to my dorm when I had literally no pants or underwear instead of taking me to the ER because I was clearly pantsless and had bruises indicating a physical assault at least. THEN gave me a disciplinary action… even after the other named person was found the next morning and taken to Public Safety with catlike scratches on his neck.”
They later went on to explain how after this injustice, they moved off-campus and tried to graduate as quickly as possible. While I can understand being a stickler for the rules, what Public Menace did in these circumstances is immoral and unacceptable on a campus that claims to take sexual assault issues seriously. Hopefully, the next time someone gets assaulted while intoxicated on campus, it will not be the victim who gets punished first.
If you too have a story to share about Public Menace send them here: bereatorch@protonmail.com.
One response to “Public Menace Monday: Tickets and Sexual Assault”
I’m sorry, Tiffany Ann, that sounds terrible 😔.
I take issue with this: “…did in these circumstances is 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 and unacceptable on a campus that claims to take sexual assault issues seriously. Hopefully, the next time someone gets assaulted while 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝…” Immoral shan’t be thrown around recklessly as such and did she explicitly say she was intoxicated?