On
February 18, 2000, two groups of Georgetown students were returning from
a night on the town when they literally crossed paths. A shouting match
ensued that quickly escalated into pushing and shoving. Our oldest son,
David, was trying to break apart two students involved in the incident
when a blind sided punch thrown by another student caught him squarely
on the mouth. David fell backwards, over a curb, unconscious, and cracked
his head on the pavement. In the parking lot of the library at Georgetown
University, only yards from his on-campus housing, he laid bleeding severely
from his head. He died four days later in the hospital, never having regained
consciousness from the blunt force head trauma he had sustained. Georgetown
University held a closed disciplinary hearing the following summer and
an appeal sometime in the fall. Georgetown agreed to tell us the outcome
of the hearing and sanctions imposed only if we signed a confidentiality
agreement that would prohibit us from sharing the information with anyone,
including our other children and our parents. For almost two years we
begged the University to share with our family the decision and sanctions
imposed by the hearing board. After exhausting all avenues, we had no
choice but to resort to civil litigation to obtain the information we
so desperately needed to know.
David's assailant was found responsible for David's death. He was found
responsible for assault with bodily injury, disturbing the peace and alcohol
violations by the student/faculty disciplinary hearing board. Upon appeal,
his punishment was reduced to a warning, a ten-page reflection paper and
alcohol counseling. As an end result, he never missed a day of classes
nor an athletic contest.
In order to obtain this information, we had to spend most of our life
savings on legal fees. The lengthy battle to obtain the decision and sanctions
resulted in additional emotional strain. Subsequently, we went through
mental and physical turmoil and eventually lost our jobs. Perhaps we would
have been able to better deal with our grief if we did not have the additional
stress of banging our heads against a wall of silence and/or indifference
for so long.
All of this anguish could have been minimized by the release of information
that we believe a victim has the right to know. Our family was and will
always be victimized by a single act of violence. Georgetown kept the
decision and sanctions imposed on the student responsible for our son's
death from our family and the community under the pretense that federal
laws prohibited disclosure.
Please help us close the loophole in federal law that allows but does
not require disclosure in cases of violent crime by calling, emailing,
and/or writing your representatives in Congress. Don't allow another family
that finds itself in a similar situation to suffer our fate. If colleges
and universities are required to disclose how they handle violent crime
then maybe college campuses will be a little safer for all of our children.
On
February 18, 2000, two groups of Georgetown students were returning from
a night on the town when they literally crossed paths. A shouting match
ensued that quickly escalated into pushing and shoving. Our oldest son,
David, was trying to break apart two students involved in the incident
when a blind sided punch thrown by another student caught him squarely
on the mouth. David fell backwards, over a curb, unconscious, and cracked
his head on the pavement. In the parking lot of the library at Georgetown
University, only yards from his on-campus housing, he laid bleeding severely
from his head. He died four days later in the hospital, never having regained
consciousness from the blunt force head trauma he had sustained. Georgetown
University held a closed disciplinary hearing the following summer and
an appeal sometime in the fall. Georgetown agreed to tell us the outcome
of the hearing and sanctions imposed only if we signed a confidentiality
agreement that would prohibit us from sharing the information with anyone,
including our other children and our parents. For almost two years we
begged the University to share with our family the decision and sanctions
imposed by the hearing board. After exhausting all avenues, we had no
choice but to resort to civil litigation to obtain the information we
so desperately needed to know.