UW weighs in on federal reporting rules following Penn State scandal
Jul 13, 2012, 8:14 AM | Updated: 10:44 am
The damning report on how Penn State handled the Jerry Sandusky child abuse situation released Thursday talked about a federal law that requires all colleges and universities to report these crimes. Penn State clearly violated the law.
It’s called the Clery Act, named after a college freshman who was raped and murdered at Lehigh University in 1986. The act requires colleges and universities to track crime on and around their campuses, and it requires the reporting of crimes by school officials.
The University of Washington’s Norm Arkins told MyNorthwest.com it’s a function the school takes very seriously.
“Whenever there are crimes committed on or near our campus, we send a notice out to the entire campus community,” he said. Those crimes are then compiled and put into an annual report in October.
UW police commander Steve Rittereiser said the Clery Act does not require mandatory reporting of crime by every university employee. Only designated “campus security authorities” have that responsibility.
“Any individual on a campus that is responsible for student activities, student judicial processes,” fall under the umbrella of authorities. Those people are designated by university policy, and they are made aware of their responsibilities,” said Rittereiser.
Rittereiser said there’s no way a school can claim ignorance on this law. The Department of Education puts out a Clery Handbook to make sure every school knows how to deal with campus crime.
That’s not to say that campus officials will report any crime. The Penn State case made it clear that having a rule and following the rule are two different things.
