SNAPSHOTS FROM HOME:
Classic Turn of Events.
So classic that a play, about to be made into a movie, features this plot development. The play is Spinning Into Butter, and the campus hate crime at its center has been committed by the person who reported the crime. For ideological reasons, or for psychological reasons, students sometimes hate crime themselves.
As at UD's university, George Washington:
'After evaluating evidence from a hidden camera positioned in response to the swastika postings in Mitchell Hall, University Police have linked the student who filed the complaints to several of the incidents.'
This comes from an email this evening to the university community.
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Update: Oy. A Jewish student drew some -- maybe all -- of the swastikas:
'The University found the student who reported several swastikas on her Mitchell Hall door was the one who drew them.
Using footage from a hidden video camera, the University Police Department linked freshman Sarah Marshak with the vandalism. She will now appear before Student Judicial Services and could face federal and District charges, a spokesperson announced Monday afternoon.
In an interview with The Hatchet Monday evening, Marshak, [Drop the comma after Marshak.] said she only drew the final three of six swastikas on her door in an attempt to highlight what she characterized as GW's inaction. Only hours earlier, Marshak categorically denied the charges. [Um, so there were SIX swastikas on her door, but she only drew three of them?]
"I wasn't looking to create this, sort of, insanity," Marshak said in a phone interview. "I wasn't looking to become a media darling. I was just looking for acknowledgment from University that someone drew a swastika on the door." [The university has responded with immense and tireless acknowledgment. ]
Marshak said Tara W. Pereira, director of SJS, informed her she would likely be expelled. Marshak said she did not want to leave GW but probably will.
Tracy Schario, a University spokesperson, said GW stands by its statement that they have a signed confession from Marshak. Schario would not comment on how many swastikas Marshak was responsible for, only saying it was "several of the incidents."
Robert Fishman, the director of Hillel, said during conversations, Marshak always came across as rational.
"This is a definite cry for help on her part," Fishman said in a phone interview Monday. [Pathetic cliche.] "I can't imagine why anyone would do anything like this. [To gain attention. To make trouble. To draw resources to an issue she cares about.] I feel very sad for her. At the same time I am upset that she had to resort to the actions she took."'
Marshak, by the way, is a GW Hatchet reporter. She was also an ambitious and award-winning journalist in high school. The paper should have mentioned these things in its story.
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Update II: Here's another ongoing university student hate crime story:
'Boulder police have ticketed an 18-year-old University of Colorado student for false reporting after she admitted that she lied to officers by claiming she was jumped by three men who cut an X into her cheek because she's a lesbian.
Alta Merkling told police she was attacked about 5 a.m. Saturday near 30th Street and Colorado Avenue, and that one of her attackers cut her face with a Swiss Army knife while saying, "X marks the faggot," according to a police report.
She later told a detective that she cut the X herself, the report says.
When Merkling made the initial police report, officers documented her injury and confirmed she had an X on her right cheek.
Officer Nicole Faivre wrote in the report that he didn't notice any other injuries, and that the X was made of "two very concise lines."
Detective Chuck Heidel followed up on the report Monday, but he had difficulty reconnecting with Merkling. Heidel also said he received a call from the director of CU's GLBT Center, who "wanted the police to know that she and others with the GLBT Center had some doubts about the veracity of the report."
When Heidel finally contacted Merkling on Tuesday, she changed parts of her story, prompting Heidel to confront her about the inconsistencies, according to police.
"Eventually Merkling confirmed that she had caused the injury to her face herself," Heidel wrote in a report. He said she "could not articulate any reason" for the false report.
Reached by telephone Thursday, Merkling declined to comment.'
'Twere those concise lines that did her in.
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