MSU Safe Place works to raise stalker awareness

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After hearing a tapping noise on her ground floor apartment window about two years ago, Kate found a sticky note with an online screen name secured to the glass.

Kate, an MSU graduate student, assumed it was a prank until she found the same note attached to her car a few days later. The State News is withholding Kate’s name to protect her identity and safety.

“I remember when I came here to look at campus and my one cousin warned me … to be aware of my surroundings,” Kate said. “I thought ‘Oh that will never happen to me.’ Well, it did.”

Police later discovered Kate’s stalker had followed her for three months, watching from outside her apartment as she undressed for bed in the evening.

January was named National Stalking Awareness Month in 2004 to raise awareness about the dangers of stalking. Stalking is conduct directed at a specific person and causes a reasonable person to feel fear, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.

MSU Safe Place participated in the month-long awareness campaign Wednesday by showing an episode of the television documentary show “E! Investigates.”

One of the women featured in the film on stalking, Harvette Williams, attended the event.

The documentary featured two other women along with Williams, who was stalked for almost three years. The other women were murdered by their stalkers.

“Stalking is a mental rape,” Williams said.

Alyssa Baumann, a volunteer and advocacy coordinator for MSU Safe Place, said 65 women and children were housed in the past year at MSU Safe Place, which shelters MSU students, faculty, staff and their partners and children who have experienced an abusive relationship.

“We do see there’s a lack of awareness about stalking,” Baumann said. “People think it only happens to other people or celebrities. It does happen much more widely than people think.”

Baumann said 60 to 70 more people access nonresidential MSU Safe Place services, such as support groups and advocacy, each year.

“When I first heard of the MSU Safe Place, I thought it was just for battered woman and domestic violence,” Kate said.

But when she found herself becoming emotional while filling out the personal protection order in the courtroom, a worker there suggested she try the service. When Kate called, Baumann came to where she was staying and acted as a liaison between Kate and the police.

Last year, 3.4 million people in the U.S. reported being stalked, said Rebecca Dreke, the senior program associate at National Center for Victims of Crime. Those between the ages of 18 and 24 are at the greatest risk for being stalked, she said.

“Campus environments make it easy for (stalkers) to intimidate their victims,” Dreke said.
“Stalking offenders are trying to provoke a reaction from someone.”

Dreke said the effects of being stalked can last a lifetime for victims.

Kate now carries a flashlight with her and refuses to walk to her car alone at night. She parks in a parking garage with security cameras and is wary of new acquaintances.

“I understand things could have been so much worse,” Kate said. “The one thing I do regret
doing is not trusting my first instincts and not calling the police the first time. Don’t let embarrassment or second guessing stop you.”

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