I'll have another post or two on the General Assembly of the Texas State Employees Union with in a day or so, but this is something I wanted to put up right away.
A few years ago I was walking to a far away parking garage after dark -- the security guard informed me that I am encouraged to call the campus police for an escort whenever I had to walk in the dark on campus.
Two weeks ago, a student in extreme distress came to my office late in the day. He said that after he'd left my office the day before, someone named Marcus, and a couple of other people named Marcus started following him. I asked him how he knew that they were Marcus -- "Because they called me." The conversation disintegrated from there. When another student came to the office to add a class, I was able to contact my supervisor who notified the police. The police got there very quickly, but the distressed student was already gone. They found him a little later, and were able to get him to where he could get the assistance he needed.
On August 9, 2006, two of my fellow union members were kidnapped from the on-campus parking lot of the Lubbock State School. A week or so later, the decapitated body of one of the women, Kay Harrelson) was found (although it is unclear as to the cause of the dismemberment -- it may have been due to animals.) The other woman, Kay Merimon, has not been found.
TSEU has called for restoration of discontinued security services on the campus and for additional steps to protect the security of staff and residents.
I'll never take our security staff and UTPD for granted again; however, the Texas legislature seems intent on slashing government services.
BTW, Ann Richards was a TSEU member, so she was on the list of deceased members.
A POSTSCRIPT:
Since I posted this, I discovered that the two women actually disappeared at lunch and they have a suspect under investigation -- it's some guy who works at that school. He didn't return to work after lunch, and he called in sick the next day. He lied about when he left -- he was caught on his apartment complex's security camera at lunchtime when he said he didn't get home until much later, and he said he was alone, but the camera showed someone else in his car.
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2 comments:
what? you knew people who were kidnapped & killed at the university? oh my dear god! how horrible! geesh, susan! yikes.
i was always someone who stayed late at work and woould walk out to the parking lots at 1 a.m. i got reasonably friendly w/ the security guards, but i never called them to walk me out.
Actually, they disappeared from the Lubbock State School which is about a 7 hour drive from here. I didn't know them, but we were in the same union.
Since I posted this, I discovered that they actually disappeared at lunch and they have a suspect under investigation -- it's some guy who works at that school. He didn't return to work after lunch, and he called in sick the next day. He lied about when he left -- he was caught on his apartment complex's security camera at lunchtime when he said he didn't get home until much later, and he said he was alone, but the camera showed someone in his car.
They still haven't found the second woman. Very sad, disturbing story.
I never did call the guard for an escort, but I am much closer parking garage now.
frihigs (what? two vowels in my word verification? that could almost make a pronounceable wordlet!)
qemh (forgot to enter the word verification and was given another) (this one, too, is almost pronounceable.)
apparently my word wasn't qemh after all. let's try fsvuo -- back to the unpronounceable, but perhaps it's typeable!
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