Students attacked in possible hate crime at Swarthmore

A Penn student and a Swarthmore College student were attacked on Swarthmore’s campus by a group of teenagers on March 27, confirmed Swarthmore Dean of Students Liz Braun.

Braun said the male Swarthmore and Penn students, aged 21 and 22 respectively, were being affectionate with each other when approached by the group.

It remains uncertain whether the students were attacked for their sexual orientation, as the investigation is ongoing. However, Bob Schoenberg — the director of Penn’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center — believes that there is a “strong possibility that anti-gay bias” was at least partly behind the attack.

The incident’s location is especially shocking as Swarthmore is a “mecca of LGBT life” and one of “the most gay-friendly liberal arts colleges in the United States,” explained College senior Jason Goodman, who also runs the Student Network Across Pennsylvania, an umbrella organization for LGBT groups across Pennsylvania’s colleges and high schools.

After a brief exchange in which they refused to procure alcohol for the teenage group, Braun explained that the two students were “hit, knocked to the ground,” and then kicked.

The group of at least five males and one female then ran off. After suffering minor injuries, both students contacted public safety officials, who in conjunction with the borough police, began their search for the aggressors while the victims spent the night at a local hospital. The teenagers have not been identified.

Though it is not unusual for teenagers to flock to Swarthmore’s campus — given the number of high schools in the area — this incident was the first of its kind in recent Swarthmore history, Braun said.

Echoing Goodman’s sentiment, Braun described the Swarthmore community as an “inclusive campus where people feel safe to express themselves freely” that “does not tolerate any kind of physical violence.”

Although the motive of the assault remains unknown, Vice President for Penn’s Division of Public Safety Maureen Rush said hate crimes “have a propensity for occurring when people are in groups.” As at Swarthmore, Penn’s DPS has seen very few instances of crimes involving discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

“It makes people angry that this can be happening,” but it means that unfortunately “this can happen to anyone at anytime,” Goodman commented. Schoenberg added that this incident reinforces the need for LGBT people to be “vigilant and safety-conscious, without becoming paranoid or returning to the closet.”

College junior Victor Galli, the political chairman for Penn’s Lambda Alliance, explained, “When this happens to our brothers and sisters at a nearby school, it really hits home for us.”

Although Galli thought it highly unlikely that a similar event would occur at Penn, he felt that a “rainbow fury” would sweep the campus and that the outcry would come from almost the entire University, as “there is so much support from the Penn community” for LGBT issues.

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