I read the article regarding the two leaders dismissed from CI, as well as the column written by Kate Stepan (July 8). Although I appreciate the Hatchet’s goal to communicate news to students, I feel the article exploited two members of our community. Throughout the story the students were disrespected and spoken of more like fictional characters than human beings.

Since the Hatchet is written and edited by the students, for the students, I hope there would be an element of sensitivity towards issues affecting large numbers of college students. Sexual assault is one of those issues.

I understand if the goal of the article was to “inform” the student body of the dismissal and the reasoning behind it. However, disclosing information such as the personal relationship between the two students and the dorm in which the assault (allegedly) occurred seemed unnecessary and invasive.

In what way does the dorm in which this (allegedly) occurred affect that the CI leaders were dismissed? How can you consider privacy respected, when there is a small group of well-known students chosen for CI, and you state that the two people had been involved in previous months?

The students involved did not choose to respond to questions from the Hatchet. Of course they didn’t. You just sensationalized a traumatic part of their lives. Would any GW student unveil personal details surrounding a sexual assault in their life?

If you are going to report on CI removing two cabinet members, go ahead. If you want to state that the case involved sexual assault accusations, that is fine. Just have some sensitivity and respect for victims of sexual assault who may not want the whole school to know about it. Next time you dig into the details of two people’s lives, think about the emotional and personal chaos you create for them. Perhaps, then you’ll understand the lack of human consideration and common decency for fellow GW students the article displayed.

-Jennifer Platow,
junior