Fox 5 Article on Gallaudet Safety

A few days ago, Fox 5 Washington published an article with the headline, “Gallaudet University named most dangerous campus in America.”

It was a bizarre report that caused a lot of chatter on social media and may have conjured up images of a war zone at Gallaudet, in the middle of a deaf university.

The Fox 5 Washington article cited its data from the Parrish Law Firm, which is a personal injury firm based in Virginia.

[Full-screen image of a website from the Parrish Law Firm]

The article said the data showed that there were 1,110 incidents of serious crime near Gallaudet’s campus from 2018 to 2022. The data was not shown in the article. The data did not show which neighborhoods around Gallaudet were counted in the data and how many were on campus. The article just said “data from the Parrish Law Firm.”

I’ve tried reaching out to the Parrish Law Firm but did not get a clear response about how it got its data.

Over the weekend, Gallaudet’s Chief Operating Officer Dominic Lacy issued a response, saying the article was “misleading and irresponsible and does not provide an accurate picture of our crime statistics.”

Lacy explained that Gallaudet is already required under federal law, the Jeanne Clery Act, to report campus crime data. They provided a link to the most recent report in 2023.

[Full-screen image of the cover of the 2023 report]

The report showed that there were several serious incidents on campus, such as 21 domestic violence incidents, 7 rape incidents, or 16 incidents of dating violence. While these incidents are concerning, it doesn’t necessarily mean Gallaudet is the most dangerous campus in America.

-——

Sponsored video by Convo: www.convorelay.com

———

I reached out to Gallaudet and was able to talk with Dean of Student Affairs Travis Imel. Here are some of the key remarks from the interview.

[Begin interview]

Dean Travis Imel: I’m Travis Imel. I’m the Dean of Student Affairs here at Gallaudet.

Alex: Can you explain your and other Gallaudet officials, the Gallaudet community’s reaction to that article?

Imel: Yeah. Look around me. Does it look dangerous to you?

Alex: It looks nice.

Imel: Right. Yeah, when the article was published, of course we got many messages. When I read it, I was confused. Gallaudet is a very safe community and campus. It’s very safe, indeed. I can walk on campus any time and not worry about my safety. So how Fox 5 DC framed it was very harsh. I was also very relieved at the community response, from Gallaudet alumni as well, about how it was ridiculous. Yes, we do have issues with communities next to Gallaudet, there are some unsafe neighborhoods, but over time we’ve seen improvements. Some have not improved, but most of them have improved over time. So the response was, “No, it’s untrue.” The article was very sensational journalism. It just tried to get attention. But if you look around here, it’s not true.

Alex: I saw Gallaudet’s COO Dominic Lacy’s response. He said Gallaudet does provide annual reports called the “Security and Fire Incident Report.” I looked at it and was concerned about the 75 incidents of sexual violence or relationship-based incidents. 29 incidents of stalking. 16 incidents of dating violence. 21 domestic violence. 7 rapes. 2 statutory rapes. These numbers seem to be higher than reports from 2021 and 2020. So are you concerned about that 75 number and what are you doing to make sure these incidents are reduced or stopped?

Imel: Yeah. These numbers are always a concern. So my response is that yes, I’m concerned, but at the same time, I’m not concerned. I will explain why. Before we get into the why, I want to talk about the numbers. You said 2023 had higher stats compared with 2022 and 2021. One thing you have to keep in mind is that these years were Covid-19 years. That means most students were working and studying from home. The campus was empty, so the numbers were naturally much lower when you compare it with a full year where the campus is full of people. That’s why there’s an increase. But if you look at the breakdowns from 2018 — which would be under the Parrish report, which covered 2018 to 2022 — the only full campus year was in 2018. In 2019 it was half. So from 2018, you can see that the numbers overall were stable and then went down. From 2018 to 2022. So we are doing the right work to reduce these numbers over time.

And no, it is not concerning to me, because it shows that we have a culture of reporting. Because we always emphasize to students that come to Gallaudet to make sure they know their rights and responsibilities. If they experience an incident, they should report it. That’s a part of their journey to self-advocacy. I don’t want them to keep it to themselves. So they do feel comfortable enough to report incidents to Gallaudet.

Secondly, you have to consider the impact of Gallaudet as a bilingual community. It is a bilingual institution. So if I experienced something, I would want to talk with someone who is able to sign and to have full communication access. So I don’t have to use an interpreter, a VRS, or a hearing organization. So of course my first thought would be to talk with DPS, with a CRE, because I want to use sign language to share what happened. No barriers. So that’s why they are comfortable to come here and make reports to our people and into our system.

Also, hearing people have advantages with access to many nonprofit organizations such as the DC Rape Crisis Center or other organizations that provide services. These are anonymous. So many hearing students would just make calls or text to make reports. These numbers don’t show up on their (colleges/university) reports. But with Gallaudet, people feel comfortable here and will use ASL so these reports are a part of our reported numbers. That’s fine. It’s because we provide communication access to services and resources to support them through their journey here. Through these bad incidents.

[End interview]

Thank you for your time, Dean Imel. Hopefully we have a better understanding about Gallaudet’s safety.

Fox 5 Article: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/gallaudet-university-named-most-dangerous-campus-america-report

Gallaudet Response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjzUwkh95po