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The Rice Thresher
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by ELIZABETH JARDINA and OLIVIA ALLISON THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF Students reported seeing a man in the women's bathroom at both Hanszen and Baker Colleges early Tuesday evening. An intruder interrupted a student's shower in the third-floor women's bathroom at Hanszen, and a Baker freshman said she saw a man standing naked in front of the mirror of the third-floor women's bathroom at Baker. A Hanszen freshman, who asked not to be identified, said she entered the third-floor Old Section bathroom at about 8 p.m. "I walked into the bathroom and somebody was in the stall, and I figured it was a girl, so I went about my business to take a shower." She closed the shower curtain and turned on the water. Then, she said she noticed a change of light in the shower. "I felt the curtain move and there was a man crouched on the floor," she said. "At first I thought it was one of the guys down the hall acting stupid," she said. She yelled, and the man walked away, but she said she didn't hear anyone open the bathroom door to leave. Believing the man was still in the bathroom, the freshman yelled, "Somebody help me!" At that point, she heard the door open and someone run down the stairs. After quickly checking the bathroom stalls to make sure they were empty, she went back to her room, and her roommate called the Campus Police. Officers arrived within three minutes, but they found no one fitting the description of the suspect. The Hanszen freshman described him as a dark-skinned black male in his mid-20s, under 6 feet tall with no facial hair. He was wearing a dark blue shirt, had a baseball cap on backwards and carried a backpack. Baker freshman Lucy Jewett said she saw a man standing with his back to the door in the middle of the bathroom with his pants down between 8 and 9 p.m. When the suspect heard her open the door, he turned around, exposing himself. "I think he was surprised when he saw me," Jewett said. "He muttered something about this being a women's bathroom." Jewett said she left the bathroom hurriedly and went to a friend's room. She said she and her friends returned to the bathroom immediately, but he was gone. Baker senior Alice Watson said she saw a black man leaving the bathroom wearing athletic shorts, a T-shirt and athletic sandals. Jewett said she did not call the police after seeing the suspect. "It was dumb, but we were going out to get ice cream and we were about to leave," Jewett said. "I didn't want to wait around and have him be long gone. It wasn't terribly frightening or anything. But I definitely think I should have called the campos sooner." Watson and Jewett described the suspect as a man in his mid-20s, about 5-foot-9 inches with "sharp features." Jewett said the man she saw was wearing a royal blue shirt and shorts, was bald and had no facial hair. These descriptions are similar to those of the man who trespassed in a third-floor women's bathroom at Will Rice College three times last semester. That suspect was never caught. Baker President Melissa Boddie said the door to the Baker bathroom had been propped open, and she sent an e-mail Wednesday to the Baker listserv reminding students not to prop open bathroom doors. Police Chief Bill Taylor said the investigation is underway and police have some leads. The door to the bathroom has a lock opened with students' cards, and there is a record of all the cards that opened the bathroom door Tuesday evening. Food and Housing Maintenance Manager Ken Thompson came to campus Tuesday night to get the data from the Hanszen card reader, which consists of the dates, times and student ID numbers of everyone who opened the bathroom door. Taylor said the previous incidents at Will Rice might be connected to Tuesday's events. "At this point we are pursuing the possibility that this is the same person who was involved in the incidents last fall," he said. After the man trespassed on three separate occasions last November at Will Rice, a keypad lock was installed on the bathroom door. A similar measure is being considered for Hanszen, although Taylor said that it was not a perfect solution. If a keypad lock is installed and another incident happens, there is no record of whose card opened the door, eliminating possible leads. However, the system has been successful at Will Rice. "The people at Will Rice have done a very good job of securing the number," Taylor said. To his knowledge, no one has given the number out, and there have been no reported cases of propping the bathroom door open. If the suspect in the Hanszen incident is caught and charged, Taylor said he would most likely be charged with criminal trespass. "He's in an area that he's not authorized to be in," Taylor said. "No other act has been done other than being where he didn't belong in an area that's supposed to be private," Taylor said about the Hanszen incident. "It's a pretty egregious trespass," Taylor said. If the suspect were convicted of felony trespass due to the site being a women's bathroom in a residential college, the offender could be given a fine and possibly jail time. - back - |
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