City lacks LGBT police liaison
Despite being named one of the nation’s most LGBT-inclusive cities in a recent survey, Bloomington lacks one major community resource: an LGBT liaison within the Bloomington Police Department.
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Despite being named one of the nation’s most LGBT-inclusive cities in a recent survey, Bloomington lacks one major community resource: an LGBT liaison within the Bloomington Police Department.
David Higgins and other members of First Nations perform in the inter-tribal dance at the Native American Health and Wellness Community Dance Saturday at the Union Street Center Auditorium.
Until this year, Student Life and Learning did not publicly specify which fraternities were facing University sanctions due to allegations of sexual assault. The approach was to investigate the student organization under any allegations and, if an event was determined to have contributed to unsafe conditions through the serving of alcohol, the student organization was sanctioned, said Dean Veldkamp, assistant dean of students and director of Student Life and Learning, in an email.
Students across campus read the email subject line: CRIME ALERT — REPORTED RAPE.
The Alpha Tau Omega house on Third Street is well lit during a Saturday night party in February. A pledge was stationed at the back door, signing girls into the party.
A group of girls walk down the stairs to a party at the Alpha Tau Omega house on a Saturday night in February. The stairs were wet from the snow, and pledges had to dry them off to keep people from slipping.
The Alpha Tau Omega basement party room displays the fraternity's seal and colors.
On an unusually warm Saturday in February, a group of students swig from blue Solo cups and dangle their feet out second-story windows, where they snap pictures of the crowd on the porch below. A single can of Natural Light sits atop a sign of the letter A, the first of the fraternity’s three letters: ATO.
David Higgins and other members of First Nations perform in the inter-tribal dance at the Native American Health and Wellness Community Dance Saturday at the Union Street Center Auditorium.
An IU student and member of Delta Tau Delta was arrested Tuesday for ordering and dealing large quantities of Xanax tablets shipped from Canada.
For the past four months, the investigations team has been reporting on sexual assault as part of the Indiana Daily Student’s ongoing commitment to provide a deeper understanding about this complex issue. The IDS requested hundreds of police and university records and interviewed administrators, nurses, detectives, attorneys, advocates and experts to provide comprehensive accounts of the stories you’ll read in this series.
Students will receive an email from IU this week asking them to complete an anonymous survey about their perceptions of campus sexual assault.
As Republicans swept the statewide ballot Tuesday night, Indiana Democrats stood by their candidates and campaign motto: “We can do better.”
Indiana Democratic candidates and constituents gathered at the Westin hotel in downtown Indianapolis on Tuesday night, numbering more than 200 and waiting in anticipation as the voting results poured in.
IU is implementing system-wide changes to sexual violence policies, procedures and prevention efforts in response to recent federal guidance from the United States Department of Education.
In the days after Kelly Hackendahl’s death, her friends made a list of phrases that described her:
A month into his doctoral studies, Martin Law learned his department would be merged.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The visiting team knew the big game would be tough.The Lawrence North Wildcats from Indianapolis were playing the Bedford North Lawrence Lady Stars, the defending state champions. They met on BNL’s home court in its small southern Indiana town for the semi-state game. Every Lawrence North player is black. They braced to play in front of a roaring crowd of almost 6,000 white faces in a state where basketball and race have been known to combust in nasty ways.In the days leading up to the game, Lawrence North had requested the game be moved to a neutral gym and at least one minority official work the game. Both requests had been denied.All week before the game, at team practices the Wildcats coach had blasted a CD with crowd noise, trying to teach his girls to stay focused. But nothing could have prepared them for the ugliness that awaited them inside BNL’s gym. The taunts from BNL’s student section began as the girls from Lawrence North’s team began warming up.“Niggers.”“We could smell you when you got off the bus.”Lawrence North parents and the principal were shocked to see many of the BNL students wearing hunting gear and safari costumes. Beneath one of the baskets, two fans were jumping up and down in gorilla suits. Lawrence North Head Coach Chris Giffin was so focused on the game that he didn’t see the gorillas and didn’t hear many of the racial slurs directed at his players. Five minutes before the tip-off, he gathered with them in the locker room. He told the girls to strategize on defense and to block out any negativity. The coach wanted his team to stay focused on one thing — going to the state finals.The girls said nothing about the taunts or fans. As always, they recited the Lord’s Prayer.“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”Looking back, their coach is still stunned at their bravery. “Had I heard some of the things they were forced to hear, we wouldn’t have played,” Giffin said. “Nobody should have to do that.”*** Lawrence North lost the semi-state game in overtime, 62-54. BNL would go on to win the state championship for the second year in a row. But the score from the semi-state game on March 1 was soon overshadowed by the aggression of the BNL fans. Days later, the semi-state girls basketball game became the most notorious racial controversy in Indiana high school athletics in recent years. The behavior of the teenagers in the stands was bad enough. But the deeper issue turned out to be that so many adults allowed it to happen. The game presented “systematic racism,” Lawrence North parents and staff argued, beginning with the refusal by the Indiana High School Athletic Association to change the venue or officials. A member of the governing body’s executive staff had attended the game but made no attempt to quell the taunts or suggest the students remove the gorilla suits. BNL administrators said nothing to the students about their gorilla costumes until the Lawrence North principal asked them to intervene. The controversy was heightened because the game took place at one of the premier high school basketball schools in the state against a team of state champions coached by basketball legend Damon Bailey. Bailey did not respond to email requests for comment. Three days after the game, Lawrence North Principal Brett Crousore complained to the IHSAA. The governing body is currently wrapping up its investigation, and the two schools plan to meet next week.The state’s chapter of the NAACP, the United States’ oldest civil rights organization, filed its own complaint. “It’s 2014,” said Chrystal Radcliffe, president of the Indianapolis chapter. “Nobody should ever have to go any places and be treated like that.” *** Basketball is a way of life in Indiana. But for decades, racism has seeped onto the court. “If it happens in society, it’s going to happen in sports,” said IU Professor Gary Sailes, who teaches courses on race in athletics. Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis became the first black team in the nation to win an all-state title in 1955, according to Greg Guffey in his book “The Golden Age of Indiana High School Basketball.” The school had been a brainchild of the Ku Klux Klan, created to segregate black students. The black team faced staunch prejudice in small towns outside Indianapolis. Fans would yell racial taunts out of car windows. When they won the state championship, there was no victory celebration — the city refused.When predominantly black teams traveled to towns like Martinsville, coaches told players to go right from the bus to the court, never stopping to eat in restaurants. Bigotry lingered for decades. In 1998, Martinsville came under national fire, featured in Sports Illustrated and USA Today. During one game, Martinsville fans yelled, “Here come the darkies,” to Bloomington High School North’s racially mixed team. During the game, Martinsville players bit several Bloomington North players. The school was banned from hosting conference games for more than a year. Just last year, a group of white Highland Hills Middle School students wore black masks to an eighth-grade basketball game against Parkview Middle School, a team that included black players. Some students wore gorilla masks and one mask that appeared to represent President Barack Obama. The principal quickly asked the students to remove the masks, called the parents of the students and later offered sessions on diversity awareness.In some towns and schools, students don’t realize that a gorilla suit or mask might be offensive, Sailes said. Many of these kids, the IU professor said, are not racist — they’re racially naïve. But blatant racism is still present today, Sailes said, especially in small Indiana towns. He often asks his IU students to write letters about their experiences with racism. One student said that even when the country idolized Michael Jordan, “If he were in the wrong place at the wrong time in my town, he would find himself killed.”As an African-American 6-foot-2 man, Sailes said he refuses to get out of the car when he drives through small towns in the state, even today. “Racism and bigotry are alive and well in small Indiana towns,” Sailes said.*** The two teams from the semi-state game, BNL and Lawrence North, play for drastically different high schools. This academic year, BNL is 94 percent white, according to the Indiana Department of Education. A total of eight black students and 44 multiracial students attend the school. A BNL yearbook from two years ago shows an all-white faculty and staff. One student said the only black teacher is an occasional substitute. It’s a school where everybody knows everybody, students say.The yearbook is filled with page after page of all-white faces. Some favorite hobbies listed by students included deer hunting, motocross racing and horse showing at the 4-H Fair. A photo spread from two years ago shows a group of three boys in gorilla costumes cheering on the basketball team. Basketball is everything at BNL. The teams play on the newly refurbished Damon Bailey Court, with its three state championship banners hanging in the northeast corner. Among the girls that Bailey coaches on the team is his daughter, Alexa. The school’s basketball history comes with lasting traditions for the fans. Elaborate costumes are always present in the stands. Students have worn police costumes, white masks and even brown paper bags over their heads. When they play Bloomington North, they dress up as lion tamers. They dress up as “hicks,” too, senior Lucas Howell said. “Our school is known for being ruthless in the student section, dressing up and having fun,” Howell said. “It’s not meant to be taken in any way.” By contrast, Lawrence North is a city school with twice as many students as BNL and 10 percent more poor ones. No race is the majority. It is 42 percent white and 38 percent black. Last year’s yearbook depicts fan traditions such as the roller coaster cheer at athletic events. It shows the time a group of students convinced administrators to take part in a Lawrence North version of the Harlem Shake video, aired on the school’s morning news show. The school has an all-black gospel choir and a predominantly black cheerleading squad. Students of color comprised half of the homecoming court.Lawrence North’s athletic director predicted a culture clash. He emailed the IHSAA a week ahead of the game requesting a minority official. “In short, perceptions matter,” Principal Brett Crousore wrote in his complaint to the IHSAA. The IHSAA representatives, he wrote, “clearly could not grasp the world in which we live as school administrators advocating for our children and community.”The IHSAA’s response was that the group selects officials well in advance and does not allow changes, Assistant Commissioner Chris Kaufman said. Lawrence North Coach Giffin had read about racist instances in the town of Bedford’s past.“Certainly you don’t want to paint the whole town with one brush, but obviously it has been there,” Giffin said. “We knew it was going to be a very raucous, volatile environment and certainly a difficult one to play in.” In the days leading up to the game, teachers at Lawrence North urged students to go support the team. One government teacher excused students from writing a paper if they went to BNL, Lawrence North senior Kody Cartwright said. Another student remembers his teacher showing him an article about a history of racism in the Bedford area. Students and fans packed into seven buses to drive to Bedford. But when they arrived, the bleachers were filled with BNL fans, and administrators had to move fans to make room.After he saw the gorilla suits, the Lawrence North assistant coach moved to stand between the crowd and his players. ***The two boys in the gorilla suits had no idea they were about to become the center of a statewide controversy. They were full of energy beneath the Lawrence North basket. BNL seniors Kaegan Key and Lucas Howell had worn the suits before with no problems, so the semi-state game wouldn’t be any different, they thought. The suits would be perfect for the safari costume theme — they hoped to “capture the Wildcats.” Key said it didn’t even cross his mind that the opposing team was entirely black.At one point, a couple of Howell’s friends cautioned him that the gorilla costumes could be misunderstood, he recalled. But he dismissed them. It was tradition. All in good fun. He couldn’t imagine anyone interpreting it any other way. As the game was about to begin, Key was singing and dancing, just like always. BNL’s athletic director tapped him on a furry shoulder, telling him the boys needed to take the suits off. Key was shocked. “Why?” he asked. “Is there a problem?”The athletic director told them he would explain later. “Just take them off.” Hostility seemed to build. During free-throws, BNL fans shouted words like “ratchet,” a slang word for a coarse, undesirable person. They said things like, “Go back to Gary,” referring to the Indiana town with a population that’s 80 percent black. At halftime, the teams were tied 27-27. The lines for concessions were packed. While waiting in line to buy a Sprite, one Lawrence North female student said she was called a “nigger bitch.” BNL took the lead as the game neared its end. An announcer urged both teams not to storm the court. Kaegan Key’s mom texted him as the game neared the end, asking him how it was going. “Good,” he said, “but we had to take our suits off.” “Why?” Jodie Key asked. “Are you guys winning?” They were ahead, her son texted.“That’s probably why, Kaegan. They’re mad.”Kaegan Key later read articles in the Indianapolis Star and WTHR referring to “racially targeted behavior” and a statewide investigation. The Lawrence North complaint letter said that its students, coaches and parents saw the gorilla outfits as a “racially insensitive choice.”Key said he was horrified. “The first thing that came to my head was, ‘I’m not racist.’” *** The Lawrence North behavior sparked a statewide debate. Principal Crousore urged the IHSAA to prohibit future state tournament games from being held at a home court.Tournament locations are always predetermined, Chris Kaufman, IHSAA assistant commissioner, said in an interview. They always run the risk that a tournament game will land at a team’s home venue. Playing at an IHSAA-member school is substantially cheaper than playing at a neutral location, such as Assembly Hall. The IHSAA pre-selected BNL as the semi-state location, even though they knew the team had won the state tournament the year before. Indiana NAACP President Barbara Bolling said the gorilla suits were not the crux of the problem. The racial taunts are the bigger issue, she said. It might mean that Indiana high schools need a level of training regarding racial sensitivity, Bolling said. BNL responded to the complaints with a letter of apology. Superintendent Gary Conner said the gorilla suits and safari costumes were “not racially motivated” and were “intended to promote school spirit.”“We will continue to closely monitor our student body’s behavior during events,” Conner said in the apology letter. “We will not tolerate students or others representing our corporation who compromise the integrity of our school by engaging in racially insensitive behavior.”In attempts to diffuse the conflict, Lawrence North Principal Crousore instructed all basketball players and staff not to speak to reporters. He then visited classrooms and urged students to let him handle the issue. But the principal couldn’t stop the Twitter battle that ensued. Lawrence North students called BNL “racist” and threatened to pick fights with BNL students. BNL students called Lawrence North “sore losers.” Some fired more racial taunts. One BNL student tweeted “Lawrence North be like,” with a picture of a gorilla. Another student tweeted a caption saying “ghetto grammar” along with a photo of the warm-up shirts worn by the Lawrence North girls, which read “We all we got.”And another: “Personally I was offended there wasn’t a white girl on that team...who’s racist now?” *** The IHSAA investigation continues. Lawrence North Principal Crousore met with IHSAA officials March 28, along with his athletic director and girls’ basketball coach. He refused to comment about the meeting. At a pep rally before the next game, the state final, BNL Principal Roger Dean reminded students to be “culturally sensitive.” But BNL administrators did not hold any meetings with the students in gorilla suits. There has been no school-wide conversation about racial sensitivity. BNL students say this investigation won’t stop their tradition of wearing extravagant costumes for basketball games. But they suspect the school might start regulating the costumes.Jodie Key, the mother of one of the boys in the gorilla suits, said her son is not racist. He was taught to never judge people. “It was a kids’ game that got turned into something else,” she said. “I think it was a good lesson for him to understand that not everybody thinks the same.”Her son and his friend Lucas Howell, who also wore a gorilla suit, agree. “It was my senior year and I was going to go all out,” Howell said. “I didn’t see it as a big deal.”They were sore losers, he said of Lawrence North. Kaegan Key said he has learned that even if he doesn’t mean to be racist, he could come across in a negative way. But he doesn’t think he crossed a line. As long as his intentions are good, Key said, his behavior shouldn’t be an issue. “They let that affect them too harshly,” Key said. “I’m not going to think I’m a racist. I came here to have a good time.”If he could do it again, he said, he would probably still wear the gorilla suit.An earlier version of this story identified Lawrence North High School Principal Brett Crousore as Jeff Crousore.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The week of Little 500 is known as a “reproducible mass disaster” at the IU Health Bloomington Hospital Emergency Department. The department calls in its entire staff to tackle the large influx of patients that fill its waiting room during the latter part of the week, Emergency Department Director Dr. Drew Watters said. A room is reserved specifically for drunk students. The students often have to wait six to eight hours before treatment because they are too drunk to speak coherently to nurses. “There’s only so many beds in the ER,” Watters said. “There’s just no place to put them.”Alcohol and sexual assaultHigh amounts of alcohol consumption often occur hand-in-hand with higher numbers of sexual assault, Watters said. A large portion of the sexual assault cases the hospital receives involve IU students. They often don’t know how much they’re drinking or where they’re drinking, said Brandy Summers, sexual assault nurse examiner. They lose control, and this puts students at much higher risk of sexual assault. Regardless of the location or circumstances, nurses urge patients to come to the hospital as soon as possible after the sexual assault. Going to the hospital if you have been sexually assaultedIf a patient arrives within 96 hours of a sexual assault, they can receive a sexual assault forensic examination, often called a “rape kit.”Without forensic evidence, it is more difficult for prosecutors to press criminal charges following a sexual assault. Time is of the essence, Watters said. A victim who receives a forensic examination is not required to report the sexual assault to the police. Forensic exams not given to the police are stored for a year under a specific case number. If the DNA is collected and stored, a victim can later decide to report the case. “You’d rather collect it and not regret it,” Watters said. “Reporting is a huge step in the process to regaining independence.”Sunday evenings or Monday mornings are the most common times that sexual assault victims visit the hospital, Summers said. These times fit within the 96-hour requirement, but the sooner victims come in, the more evidence they might have for their cases. She urges sexual assault victims not to shower after an assault and, when possible, not to change clothes. She realizes this a difficult and counter-intuitive request for victims who have just experienced the trauma of a sexual assault. But each time a victim showers, more and more DNA gets washed away. What happens at the hospital The nurse takes the patient to a specific room — room 19. It’s where the hospital keeps all items necessary for sexual assault forensic examinations. He or she tells the patient she is sorry this happened, that it is not the patient’s fault and that the recovery process starts now. The patient is in control. The nurse then asks the patient to tell them what happened. Where did it take place — in a bed, a car, the floor of an apartment? Were you physically coerced — were you restrained, shoved, abducted, choked? What were you wearing at the time, and what types of sexual acts did the perpetrator commit?“When we ask you, ‘Did they bite you?’ we’re not saying, ‘Did you bite back?’” Summers said. “We’re looking for where we can find DNA.”Summers realizes that when a victim describes sexual assault, it’s like he or she is being assaulted all over again. Watters said he tries not to push patients to tell him what happened. “I don’t care what happened sexually,” Watters said. “I will assume everything was done. My perspective is on the wellness of the body.”The patient is then asked whether or not they would like to report the sexual assault to the police. If a patient decides not to, Summers said she aims to find out why. Sometimes, it’s because they knew the perpetrator well. Other times it’s because they don’t trust the legal system. Every patient copes with the stress of a sexual assault differently. “Some just want to get it over with, some are hysterical, some are laughing,” Summers said. “The patient who is laughing and giggling is treated the same as the person who is crying hysterically.”The patient is offered the chance to work with Bloomington-based Middle Way House, a domestic violence program and rape crisis center, to receive support and legal advocacy. Next, the nurse will begin the sexual assault forensic examination process, if the patient decides to proceed with it. She takes a blood sample from the patient and then begins collecting external DNA. “We start least invasive to most invasive,” Summer said. If it’s been less than six hours since oral contact, the nurse flosses the patient’s teeth and collects swabs from the mouth. She takes finger nail scrapings, in case the patient was able to scratch the perpetrator. The patient is asked to comb his or her own hair to look for hairs that don’t belong. The patient is then asked to remove all clothing except undergarments, if they’re willing. The nurse asks to keep the patient’s underwear as evidence, providing a replacement pair. She looks for any visible injuries, and she uses a special black light to search for bodily fluids on the skin. She then performs the genital exam, gathering DNA from the patient. The next stepsAfter all evidence is documented, the nurse offers the patient medication for STD prevention. If it’s been within about three days, the nurse offers emergency contraception, also known as Plan B.She then helps prepare the patient for recovery. If the patient is a student, the nurse helps arrange for a follow-up with the Sexual Assault Crisis Service through IU Health Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services.“If they call while they’re here, they’re more likely to go to SACS,” Summers said. The IU Health Center also offers two trained nurses who can perform sexual assault forensic examinations, but they are only available during business hours. Most importantly, Summers urges students to be careful and responsible. She tells students never to leave friends by themselves at parties. “We’ve had some people say, ‘She was fine, so we just left her at the party,’” Summers said. “They’re leaving her in unknown territory.”She encourages students to seek blunt consent before having sex. Physical cues are not enough — both individuals must give verbal confirmation. But if a sexual assault does happen, Watters said the best thing a patient can do is respond as quickly as possible. “If something happens, it is not the end,” Watters said. “It is just the beginning.”
ELLETTSVILLE, Ind. — The funeral director pours water over the woman’s body as he tells her about his day.