Letter from Director: Stalking Awareness Month

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Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year and welcome back to campus! I hope everyone enjoyed their break and the new year has been kind to y’all so far.

We start our Spring semester during an important time of year, as January is Stalking Awareness Month. Stalking is when someone knowingly engages in behaviors/activities directed at a specific person which would cause a “reasonable person” to fear for their physical safety or the physical safety of a third person.

Examples include:

  • Following someone or showing up places where they know someone will be
  • Sending unwanted gifts or items
  • Monitoring texts or calls
  • Tracking where someone is with a GPS
  • Driving by someone’s home, where they work, where they hang out
  • Finding out information about someone by researching someone, going through their things, and/or harassing friends or family

It can also take the form of “cyber-stalking”, where technology (including spyware on phones and social media) is used to monitor, threaten, harass, or intimidate someone else.

In order to start a conversation on campus, the SACE Office has worked with Olin Library to have posters on Stalking Awareness Month hung up in the bathrooms and throughout the library outlining some information about what stalking is, some red flags, and resources for care and support. Head to the library to check them out!

The SACE Office will also be partnering with Public Safety to do some tabling events on Wednesday, January 30th, Thursday, January 31st, and Friday February 1st from 11:30 am – 1 pm in Usdan. Come by our table and get some information about the dynamics of stalking, resources for care and support, and some facts about what stalking looks like particularly on college campuses.

Finally, we’ve also been sharing information online at our Facebook page. If you haven’t already, feel free to like our page to stay up to date with events and information about the SACE Office: https://www.facebook.com/WesSACEOffice/?view_public_for=286428745506633

If you have ideas about how you would like to see the conversations happen in your community, please feel free to reach out to me. It would be great to hear your ideas!

In the meantime, I wish you all the best and hope the start of the semester goes well.

Best wishes for a great semester!

Take care,

Johanna