L
LiGr
Guest
- Jurisdiction
- New Jersey
Hi,
I am a Resident Assistant at my university and have been on the receiving end of multiple accounts of verbal, non-verbal, and sexual harassment, in addition to being exposed to marijuana on an almost daily occurrence.
These are the events that I have reported to school officials (there are a few other incidents that I did not report):
1. A student pointed a Nerf gun at my head and said "oh look a target"
2. I have an emotional support animal (approved under 504) that I was bringing to my car, when a student said that they were going to "squeeze and juice it"
3. Students stood outside my door at 2 am, calling and baiting me
4. A student walked past me said "are you going to open up wide" and than shouted to another student across the street
5. My room frequently smells of marijuana from students smoking above, across, and outside of my room.
As a RA I have reported these incidents, all of them containing the same individuals, however the one "leading" switches up. In addition to filing official reports, I have contacted my supervisor in Residence Life and Director of Community Rights and Responsibilities, directly through emails and in-person. I received no response and have only received a response when I directly go to the office and initiate a conversation with my boss. The only action that has been taken, that I have been notified of, is my boss speaking to the students. Any sanctions handled by judicial are considered confidential, however school policy does state that acts of bullying and harassment are to be followed up with the victim. I have resigned as an RA, in effect at the end of the fall semester, and I am moving off campus. These events have occurred between the first week of October, to the most recent one that was this evening. When I spoke to my boss after the first incident he laughed and said "would you rather them be smoking marijuana?" (which they were/are doing as well). My physical and mental health has deteriorated quite a bit. I have had a tremendous increase of panic attacks and migraines. I do not feel safe on campus, I have said this directly to my boss and other staff members. Even though I am no longer going to be living on campus, I am worried about the other students, if the school is going to let an RA, who has the ability to easily write reports, get mistreated by other students, how are they going to keep the other four hundred residents safe.
I am not entirely clear whether this would be a case against housing (Residence Life), the university, or the students themselves. College policy wise there are violations of bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment, that are found directly on the website. My main issue is that the school is not taking action to stop these actions from taking place and are failing to provide disciplinary actions to students in regards to both different forms of harassment and drug abuse. I know that there is time allotted to filing a sanction, court, and an appeals period, however nothing is being done in the meantime to keep these students from continuing.
I think that this would fall under "negligence," however I have never sued anyone and I do not know if I should even bother, but I am worried about what will happen if the issue is not addressed to the students remaining on campus.
I am a Resident Assistant at my university and have been on the receiving end of multiple accounts of verbal, non-verbal, and sexual harassment, in addition to being exposed to marijuana on an almost daily occurrence.
These are the events that I have reported to school officials (there are a few other incidents that I did not report):
1. A student pointed a Nerf gun at my head and said "oh look a target"
2. I have an emotional support animal (approved under 504) that I was bringing to my car, when a student said that they were going to "squeeze and juice it"
3. Students stood outside my door at 2 am, calling and baiting me
4. A student walked past me said "are you going to open up wide" and than shouted to another student across the street
5. My room frequently smells of marijuana from students smoking above, across, and outside of my room.
As a RA I have reported these incidents, all of them containing the same individuals, however the one "leading" switches up. In addition to filing official reports, I have contacted my supervisor in Residence Life and Director of Community Rights and Responsibilities, directly through emails and in-person. I received no response and have only received a response when I directly go to the office and initiate a conversation with my boss. The only action that has been taken, that I have been notified of, is my boss speaking to the students. Any sanctions handled by judicial are considered confidential, however school policy does state that acts of bullying and harassment are to be followed up with the victim. I have resigned as an RA, in effect at the end of the fall semester, and I am moving off campus. These events have occurred between the first week of October, to the most recent one that was this evening. When I spoke to my boss after the first incident he laughed and said "would you rather them be smoking marijuana?" (which they were/are doing as well). My physical and mental health has deteriorated quite a bit. I have had a tremendous increase of panic attacks and migraines. I do not feel safe on campus, I have said this directly to my boss and other staff members. Even though I am no longer going to be living on campus, I am worried about the other students, if the school is going to let an RA, who has the ability to easily write reports, get mistreated by other students, how are they going to keep the other four hundred residents safe.
I am not entirely clear whether this would be a case against housing (Residence Life), the university, or the students themselves. College policy wise there are violations of bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment, that are found directly on the website. My main issue is that the school is not taking action to stop these actions from taking place and are failing to provide disciplinary actions to students in regards to both different forms of harassment and drug abuse. I know that there is time allotted to filing a sanction, court, and an appeals period, however nothing is being done in the meantime to keep these students from continuing.
I think that this would fall under "negligence," however I have never sued anyone and I do not know if I should even bother, but I am worried about what will happen if the issue is not addressed to the students remaining on campus.