Campus Safety Services (CSS) is increasing its presence along Massachusetts Route 2 after receiving two reports of racial harassment directed at students along the route in recent days. Director of CSS Jeff Palmer announced the additional CSS presence in an all-campus email on Oct. 14. These incidents follow two other reports of racial harassment on Route 2, which Palmer disclosed in a Sept. 30 campus-wide email, and additional incidents over the summer and during the last academic year.
Palmer wrote in the Sept. 30 email that “[CSS] received a report of a white four-door pickup truck towing a motorcycle trailer that shouted and made gestures of a derogatory and explicit nature and shouted racial slurs at students who were waiting at the bus stop.”
“Additionally, we received reports of students who experienced intimidation from a black truck that accelerated through the crosswalk while students were beginning to cross,” he continued.
The Oct. 14 email stated that the additional incidents were “of a harassing nature” and involved racial slurs.
Before the harassment reports, CSS had already planned to station officers at crosswalks along Route 2 in October for its annual Push the Button campaign to encourage students to use the crosswalk lights. However, CSS expanded the scope of the initiative in response to the reports, according to Palmer. “This year, we are doing it a week earlier and with a few more shifts than last year, in part to address the bias incidents,” he wrote in an email to the Record.
This year, the campaign is running from Oct. 15–31, adding around 100 hours in extra shifts for CSS officers at the crosswalks. The earliest shift begins at 10 a.m., and the latest ends at 7 p.m.
Palmer explained that CSS has hosted the Push the Button awareness campaign in the past but decided to make it an annual program last year. “The goal [of the campaign] is to promote crosswalk safety, especially when it gets darker earlier,” Palmer explained.
During last year’s campaign, the officers handed out candy to students who pushed the crosswalk buttons. “The message is simple: Push the crosswalk button to activate the flashing lights to warn drivers, look both ways before you cross, and pay attention to traffic as distracted drivers may not notice the lights or crosswalks.”
While Palmer emphasized that the College encourages community members to report bias incidents, he also noted that the College cannot make direct changes to the security infrastructure of Route 2 — like installing cameras — because the highway is public property under the jurisdiction of the Williamstown Police Department (WPD).
“Personally, I am an advocate for [installing] cameras, but I understand that there are a lot of considerations to take into account,” Palmer wrote.
“There’s no plans right now, but we are talking about it with the College,” WPD Chief Mike Ziemba said of plans to install cameras along the highway.
CSS and WPD are working together to promote safety along Route 2, Palmer explained, and WPD is also keeping a record of bias incidents. “Route 2 is the town’s property and we want to keep them apprised of the goings on,” he wrote.
Ziemba noted that it is often difficult for his department to respond concretely to these events. “A lot of [the incidents] are protected under freedom of speech, and the ones that are actionable have not come from the same cars, which makes taking action tricky,” he told the Record.
He added, however, that the new CSS policy is welcome support. “I support anything that would help be another set of eyes,” he said. “[That way] when this stuff happens, we can follow up on it.”
In both campus-wide emails, Palmer asked anyone who witnesses a bias incident or has information about recent incidents to contact CSS at 513-597-4444 or WPD at 413-458-5733. He encouraged witnesses to take note of the vehicle — make, model, color, and license plate, — and provide that information to CSS or WPD.
“We want to thank the students who contacted us about the incidents over the last several days and to remind everyone that actions like these have no place here,” he wrote. “Please take care of yourselves and others.”
