WP Sports columnist Tracee Hamilton on being stalked

[Captain Hilts]

I'm surprised that creep wasn't kicked out of school once others knew about it. I have no experience with this sort of thing, thank goodness, but I've known folks that did.

The Fear That Can't be Locked Away

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101301768.html

I was lucky, if you can call it that, to have been stalked before the digital age. Nearly 30 years ago, a stalker had to rely largely on land lines and the U.S. mail to instill fear, and a stalking victim had to rely largely on herself and her friends for protection.

I've been thinking about stalkers a lot lately, because of the Erin Andrews case and especially because of continuing debate over whether Andrews somehow "asked for it" because of her hair and her clothes and her looks. I'm no Erin Andrews, nor was I 30 years ago. But an August 2009 report by the Department of Justice says that during a recent 12-month period, 3.4 million people age 18 or older were victims of stalking. They can't all have been pretty blonde women with high-profile television jobs.

...

That was the beginning of two years of what I would describe as near-unrelenting hell. My stalker also wanted to be a sportswriter, so I saw him nearly every day, at every football and basketball practice, at every game, and of course every day in the halls of the J-school. I was always there, in the newsroom of the student paper, which had a glass front facing the hallway that led into the building. My stalker became a fixture at those windows, standing and staring in at me.

...

My friend Gene was with me one day when I pulled one of the letters out of the mailbox. He read it, and mobilized the troops. I wouldn't be left alone in the newsroom, ever. At practices, someone would always sit with me, at least one person and sometimes more. If I was seated near my stalker in the press box, the seating cards would be switched before the game to put as much distance between us as possible. One of the basketball players found out, and offered me a present: his switchblade, which he'd brought with him to campus from New York. I was tempted, but declined.

[vadawg]

1. As ive said before best thing to do is get and learn how to use a gun

and dont be afraid to use it if your stalker gives you the reason, RO will only go so far in protecting you...

[Blue_Tires]

2. why does it surprise you that he wasn't kicked out of school?

the old semi-true axiom goes that they'll kick you out of school for not paying tuition before anything else...the guy who shot up Virginia Tech was into stalker-ish behavior, underskirt photograping, and a lot of other general weirdness...He pretty much should have been kicked out on several different occasions before he snapped...