Police Beat Special Report 9/26/2018: Harassment on Campus

Photo Sharing and Photo Scaring

A picture is worth a thousand words. So is a screenshot, especially if it is of an inappropriate conversation plotting to take photos of a woman in the shower.

On Aug. 12 at 6:45 p.m. a University of Arizona Police Department officer arrived at Coronado Residence Hall and made contact with a female UA student.

The student told the officer that a friend of hers from high school notified her that day that the friend’s ex-boyfriend and another person who currently attends their high school were exchanging messages about the student on Instagram.

The friend had logged into her ex-boyfriend’s Instagram account, to which she still had the password, and saw the troublesome messages. She took screenshots and sent them to the student.

In the messages, the ex-boyfriend sent a picture of the female student’s Instagram account to the high school student. The high school student then said he was willing to pay the ex-boyfriend if he got pictures of her.

The ex-boyfriend responded by saying “I’ll go into the girl’s shower and wait for her.” The high school student offered $100 for the pictures and the ex-boyfriend agreed to try.

She showed the screenshots to the officer. The student told the officer that to her knowledge, no pictures had been taken or distributed, though she would want to prosecute if any had been.

The student expressed feeling uncomfortable due to the fact that the ex-boyfriend currently attends UA. She had previously spoken to him briefly a few times on campus.

The officer informed the student of her Victims Rights, but he also told her that, based on her statements, it was unclear if the men have committed a crime.

The officer managed to speak with the ex-boyfriend in the lobby of his residence hall.

The ex-boyfriend told the officer that the messages had been intended as a joke and that he had no intention of actually taking of distributing any photos as he knows it would be inappropriate and illegal.

The officer told the ex-boyfriend not to contact the student again unless she initiates it and that he would be sending an FYI to the dean of students office.

Baby Get Back

Unwarranted sexually explicit song lyrics are music to no one’s ears, including one female UA employee who reported one such incident to UAPD on Aug. 13.

A UAPD officer arrived at the UA Fred Fox School of Music at approximately 4 p.m. where he met with the employee as well as the school’s academic advisor.

The employee told the officer that the day before, on Aug. 12, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. she was walking down the hall to her office when she noticed someone walking behind her.

She recognized the other person as a male music school student. She felt that he was uncomfortably close, given the fact that they were the only two people in the hall.

The student began singing sexually explicit lyrics from the song “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot. The employee stated that she felt the lyrics were directed at her.

She told the officer that she felt uncomfortable and concerned, but decided not to acknowledge him, because she was alone in the hallway at night and was aware of some of his past behavior.

The employee stated that prior to this incident she had noticed the same student standing outside her office multiple times, despite him not having any legitimate reason to be there.

The adviser told the officer that other students had reported this student in the past for making awkward or inappropriate comments.

The employee said that she was concerned for her personal safety, as she felt that this student may be becoming fixated on her. She did not wish to prosecute for this incident, just to have it documented.

After receiving the student’s number from the adviser, the officer managed to make arrangements to meet with the student in the UAPD station.

Once he agreed to speak with the officer, the officer asked the student if he knew why he was there, to which the student stated that he could not recall any unusual encounters as of late. The officer described the incident in question to the student.

The student revealed that he was frustrated over consistently being misunderstood and expressed feeling tired of everything.

The officer asked if he had ever thought about harming himself or anyone else, to which the student responded that he had experienced recent suicidal thoughts.

The officer then offered to transport the student to the Crisis Response Center. After some further discussion, the student agreed to go.

Upon arrival, the student was evaluated by the Mobile Crisis team and voluntarily admitted for treatment.

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