LMU takes extra safety steps after reported rape

I'm sure if this happened to Ms. Fee it would not be a minor incident. If the allegations prove true, the female student will have problems the rest of her life with this. I hope this person is not accusing someone if they were actually innocent. Ms. Fee acts as if no one cares what happens on campus. My daughter goes to a small college and I'm sure it would bother her if something of this nature happened at her school and she would be concerned about the individual that it happened to, not just dismiss it. Afterall, it could happen to anyone.

more will happen if they dont think so.

I wanted to make it clear that I do care about the things that take place in the community around me, as I am very active in it. But until the allegations are proven, I do not see the point in blowing things out of proportion. Sexual assault is a horrible thing and yes, it can happen to anyone. When the news first got out, all of us were bothered. Of course I am concerned for the girl, but that wasn't the question I was asked. I was asked how I thought the community would react. We will work through our problems as a group and move on, learning from what has happened.

Victoria Fee wrote:

I wanted to make it clear that I do care about the things that take place in the community around me, as I am very active in it. But until the allegations are proven, I do not see the point in blowing things out of proportion. Sexual assault is a horrible thing and yes, it can happen to anyone. When the news first got out, all of us were bothered. Of course I am concerned for the girl, but that wasn't the question I was asked. I was asked how I thought the community would react. We will work through our problems as a group and move on, learning from what has happened.

"Blowing things out of proportion" can have many definitions. To conduct a seminar to remind students of ways to protect themselves and how important awareness of one's surroundings, etc. is does not, in most people's opinion, constitute "blowing things out of proportion"!

This might be a minor thing to some, but not to the girl this happened to. What a cold hearted statement!!!MINOR. You should be ashamed of yourself!

LMU is an excellent school; however, this article is INCORRECT. The parking lots behind the freshmen dorms have NO lighting and NO video cameras. A great deal goes on in these parking lots. They have spent literally millions on the new medical school but nothing on their youngest residents. The doors to the residence halls are always open with the alarm going off and no one checks. The alleged rape was a terrible thing. LMU needs to spend more money on lighting and video cameras to make sure this does NOT happen again. LMU - please get lights and cameras at EAST and WEST as soon as possible.

Just because a campus is small doesn't mean things like this can't happen. Just because a campus is small doesn't mean that more crucial things won't happen in the future. I'm positive I'm not the only resident of Harrogate that feels the police services aren't adequately trained to deal with such a crisis.

I am ashamed that anyone would say blowing out of proporitions when it took over a month to even make the papers. But that is the way it is in Claiborne Co. When you have a Sheriff who is accursed of sex with a minor. What if if was Ms Fees. daughter. I know some people who seen the Girl afterwards asked Ms Fee about that??

Cat wrote:

I'm sure if this happened to Ms. Fee it would not be a minor incident. If the allegations prove true, the female student will have problems the rest of her life with this. I hope this person is not accusing someone if they were actually innocent. Ms. Fee acts as if no one cares what happens on campus. My daughter goes to a small college and I'm sure it would bother her if something of this nature happened at her school and she would be concerned about the individual that it happened to, not just dismiss it. Afterall, it could happen to anyone.

OMG! I agree with you. These students should be very concerned about this and be concerned for their own safty. Wake up students!!!!

i go to LMU. i don't stay in the dorm but have been over there at night and the lighting is horrible. the doors are always open there and just anyone can walk in. honestly the only place they even care about is the new medical building. it has plenty of lighting at night and alot of security. just because the campus is small doesn't mean things like this don't happen. i have heard of other people saying they were raped but not saying anything about it. this article really make the one that came out feel horrible about doing so. i just hope she's ok and knows that people really do care that this happened to her.

Whether a rape really occurred on this campus or not I think the prudent thing to do is to be extra cautious.

I agree with "just me". All of the news and gossip have made this worse for her. With it being on the news, people who don't even know her, or our community, are judging what kind of school we are and what type of student body we have here. It shouldn't have to be on the news or in the papers. It concerns us and raises questions about our safety, therefore it is up to us to make better decisions and work with the school on making improvements. That's why as a campus we need to move on so it isn't a constant reminder for her. It's not because we're not concerned. We're not heartless. We as students need to be more careful and take precautions. The seminar we had hopefully opened the eyes to some of those who maybe weren't as safe as they could be. With the renovations on campus things are getting better, but no matter what the school does, there will always be someone who isn't completely happy with the way things are.

"I knew everything was going to get blown out of proportion, but first it was kind of unbelievable," Mike Cates, a sophomore originally from the Chicago area said.
It is unbelievable to me that Mr. Cates can make such a statement. Blown out of proportion? I'll tell you what is blown out of proportion - it is the fear and guilt and shame of the woman who has been raped feels every day of her life. Please don't treat this horrendous act as some small occurence. It happens, every day, in your neighborhood. Everyone should be aware of potential dangers and how to handle them. I wish I had known how to handle it 27 years ago. My prayers go to this young woman. She is going to need them.

LMU is a good school and they are making improvements daily but not for the safety of their students. They are building buildings for future growth but not taking the safety of their current students seriously. My daughter lives in the same dorm where this alleged rape happened. This type of thing can happen at any time.........the doors are constantly left open or propped open where anyone can enter. This is an all girls dorm but at any given time you can find plenty of boys roaming the halls or in the rooms. I as a parent and with no key to enter can walk in at any time. The entrances are not monitored and the parking lots are dark. The buildings do not have the proper lighting aroung them either. Can some of that twenty thousand dollar a year tuition that I am spending please be used to light the parking lot and secure my daughter's dorm so that I can sleep at night knowing my daughter is safe?

it's a bad deal and so simple to prevent that the staff didnt look into it. did they ever just ask the po-po to look at the safety threats on campus? that can take care of many problems...

It did bother me that these accusations were made, but they did not make me feel any differently towards anyone. LMU is not a safe campus at all. There are a few entrances to the campus and none of them are monitored. People can come on and off campus as much as they want to, and security never knows a thing. The medical school has someone with security up there at all times. Where is the security that stays at Liles, West, Grant-Lee, and the other dorms? No one lives at the darn medical school, and I'm sure they lock it up, so what are they guarding?! I think that the value of students' safety and their lives is much more important than watching some building with a well-lit parking lot. Campus lighting has been an issue ever since I got here, and nothing is ever going to be done about it. I think that we pay entirely too much to go to a school where the lighting is bad and that the students constantly have complaints, whether it be maintenance-related or not. Sometimes I have to walk in the dark on campus, and it really scares me. I have pepper spray, but what good does that do if I can't even see my hand in front of my face?! It is not the students at LMU that make it such an open, vulnerable place, but the "security" here who is more concerned about who's drinking or who has a dog in their room instead of some creep who might be coming on campus to rape and kill someone.

As a former LMU student that lived in the freshman dorms, I know first hand about the lack of lighting, cameras, and security on campus. I wish that they would pay more money for improvements than focusing on the medical school. There are other students with other majors than just medicine.

Mr.Cates is probably referring to the allegded rape that had occured,word around campus is that is that it wasn't even rape,just a girl protecting her reputation,

First, let the police do their job. Second, it's a good idea to remind people about safty.

Do you think the university handled the situation well? Do you think information was given in a timely fashion?