Tragic story. My heart breaks for his parents- unimaginable grief.
I have a very close family member who is a student there so I have been getting updates all along. Today, I looked at the college’s Facebook page and started reading all the comments. I won’t post them here (you can look them up if interested) but sounds like perhaps there is way more to this story than was reported. All around, a horribly sad situation.
The kid had emotional issues, which at least raises the issue of or the the appropriateness of or the lack of effective intervention by the college and bullying among his college peers.
^ According to this news report, the student was a victim of a prank: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Jacob-Margerger-Death-Self-Inflicted-Gunshot-Wound-352746651.html. What happened was that "[s]omeone had placed a trash can full of water against his dorm room door, so when he opened the door, the water came into his room,” said Washington College public safety director Jerry Roderick. “He felt very hurt by that and he saw this as (people) reaching out to ridicule him in some way.”
Sounds like the kid had issues; however, that trash can episode is unwarranted no matter what. I hope they find out and discipline whoever did that.
My daughter attends and was quite involved in the situation. There is an enormous amount of complexity to the entire story. It would require a multi page article to delve into the detail and timeline. There is also quite a lot of misinformation in social media and current news articles on the internet.
The short of it is that the disciplinary process…which needed to occur, because obviously, guns on campus are prohibited…was protracted and thwarted by the actual gun disappearing to an off campus residence. Secrecy, likely by fraternity members circling the wagons, prevailed. This caused rumor to swirl for a long time, and action to be slow. You can’t take action if you don’t have proof and facts that a violation occurred.
The wheels began to turn, the boy was suspended and evaluated as required by school policy. He returned to school and was likely going to be expelled anyway after more hearings occurred. I believe at this point, because of the current climate regarding guns at colleges…some students probably were confused and frightened as to why he was back. In addition, there were other independent acts that caused the young man to be unjustly treated. So we have a combination of acts that are ‘just’ and warranted, and acts that are ‘unjust’ and unwarranted. Add in social media rumor mongering, and potential bulllying, and this is what can occur if an individual is sensitive or volatile. There were clearly emotional issues, however, the young man was cleared to return to campus by an independent psych eval.
I really appreciate your insight and certainly realize that what I have read online and on FB is not the full story. Based on your knowledge of the situation, what could have been handled better/differently?.
I think we are still learning - I don’t believe all of the information is in yet.
I think people deserve privacy when they are going through a college disciplinary processes…to an extent - perhaps up until the point where there is a factual finding. I think there was extreme fear created when the only information circulating about the gun incident was rumor, and not a factual account of the event that led to his suspension. However, since the process was not complete, it wasn’t evident that the administration had actually acted properly and within its policies. I first heard the rumors, and as a parent, was stunned he was allowed on campus…for weeks following the suspension. But now that I hear the facts, I think, OK I can see why he might have been allowed back. And now, of course, you have everyone with 20/20 hindsight saying…it was no big deal. I still think it was a very big deal that a young man had a gun on campus and was intoxicated waving it around. Those are indisputable facts.
Perhaps if you have a gun on campus, you are immediately expelled if it is found to be true. This would have sent the young man home, perhaps to a safer environment. We know the investigation was protracted because of fraternity secrecy, and then WC’s disciplinary process is also likely confidential…so there was no transparency. WC was doing something, it just wasn’t public information.
We then have the problem of the potential bullying and ostracism. We don’t know if he complained about it. Hopefully that will come out. Maybe that came out during his psych eval, and during the time he was suspended - and maybe it was being actively investigated. We know that in the press conference, they mentioned that he felt persecuted - we don’t yet know if they were acting on this information; it does take time. We do know that the SGA members he reported for sexual harrassment were dismissed from the SGA. So, appropriate action was taken there by the school or the SGA in that case. What we don’t know was how his reporting of the sexual harrassment incident became known within the SGA and his fraternity (was his privacy violated, or did he let people know he filed the complaint…WC has a system for making completely anonymous complaints). It seems some individuals in these organizations then gave him a hard time.
Social media had a big influence on the outcome here also. There was information flowing on Yik Yak and maybe FB on Sunday that was likely combinations of true and false - I believe he saw this information and was deeply affected by it.
We can’t ban social media, nor can a college police it. We can only think critically, and act with kindness and civility. I think some kids were posting what they thought to be true, but was not. I think some thought there was some sort of cover up.
This was the best article I found on the situation, but I think more information will come out. I will post a little more later tonight.
Thank you for your post and that very detailed account in the link. It’s a sad story.
Some of the comments on the article talk about the possibility of Aspergers influencing the outcome. Jacob’s father does not come out and say he has Aspergers, however, what he describes in terms of traits Jacob had almost imply this. Other articles Jacob’s father was quoted in also mention these traits. It may shed a light on Jacob’s response to an extremely complex and difficult situation.
Teaching kids about social media and the sometimes cowardly nature of anonymous postings could help…though this particular group of kids should already be pretty high in the critical thinking department. But different people have different levels of sensitivity to vile comments. I’m aware of another suicide in my hometown due to this. Highly sensitive individuals can ruminate and take things very personally.
I was wondering about Aspergers too…
A lot more information about what led up to the final tragic situation here:
Apparently, the bullying started when he reported other students for sexual harassment of another student.
I was wondering about Asperger’s too, especially after reading he was a NM scholar. Washington College is a fine school, but this is a student who may have had the stats for a more selective LAC and maybe chose WC specifically because it was a place where he and his family believed he could excel.
Just a heart-breaking and devastating story.