Argh. More bad news out of Westfield State College.
Westfield State rape suspect sought
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
By GEORGE GRAHAMWESTFIELD — The Westfield State College Department of Public Safety has identified a suspect in the reported on-campus rape of a female student Friday morning. As of late yesterday afternoon, no arrest had been made in the case, which was reported in Davis Hall about 6:15 a.m.
Friday, officials said. “We think this is a singular incident rather than a predatory situation,” Arthur R. Jackson, vice president of student affairs at Westfield State, said yesterday. Jackson described the suspect as a “young man” but declined to state whether he is a student.
“Because the report is under investigation, we are not releasing further details at this time,” said Paul V. Scannell, director of public safety at the college. Scannell said that college public safety officers are working closely with Massachusetts State Police in conducting the investigation.
The student was assisted by campus personnel and is now with family, officials said. A campus-wide notice issued Friday advised all students to keep their room doors locked and report anything suspicious to campus police at (413) 572-5262.
©2007 The Republican
Violence, both actual and alleged, happens on and near many college campuses — the accusations and outcome of the Duke University case is a recent example — but Westfield State is a small school, and Davis Hall was my dorm.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. has died. He wasn’t young, and he was way older than he had a right to be, considering he never quit smoking, but it still sucks that he’s gone. Vonnegut wrote The Sirens of Titan, a book that l enjoyed reading very much, and he wrote the wonderful TV movie called Between Time and Timbuktu. It was produced by WGBH in Boston for PBS, back when it was called National Educational Television. The movie opened with Cousin Brucie, so I had to love it. It’s not available on video, sorry to say. The show also featured the comedy team of Bob and Ray, who got their start on Boston radio. Ray Goulding was absolutely hilarious in Between Time and Timbuktu as Walter Gesundheit, a parody of the legendary TV newsman Walter Cronkite.