Early Sunday morning you received a Public Safety Alert which read, “At approximately 2:55 a.m. a male student and a female visitor were walking on High St. near College when a group of six individuals began to verbally harass them. The group of individuals then assaulted the student and the visitor striking them several times before fleeing east on College St. The suspects are described as African American males, wearing dark coats and jeans.” We believe that this e-mail was misleading and would like to offer our account.

Walking home that night down High St., we passed a group of about six males at College St. who made polite and humorous conversation with us as we continued walking. Moments later, we heard a female shouting obscenities (“Do you have a problem with white kids, you fucking vaginas?!”), so we turned around. In the crosswalk we saw the female aggressively yelling at the group we had just passed. In the few seconds we spent considering whether or not to turn back, the Wesleyan student accompanying the female began to engage in a physical fight with two members of the group; the other four stood back. The fight was brief; a few punches were thrown but no one was injured. Public Safety and the Middletown Police arrived soon after that. During questioning, the male student reported that he and his visitor were “jumped” on their way home by “six black men in dark jackets” who “ran back to their ghetto.” This is essentially the information Public Safety passed on to the entire Wesleyan community.

That however, is not what happened. While there was a brief fight, it was not six against two, and there was certainly no “jumping.” The Wesleyan student was not a victim of an assault, but rather a participant in a fight. Public Safety or the police officer did not question us, though we stayed for several minutes afterward. We should have said something at the time, but because the students involved were there, we chose to wait, not knowing the alert would be sent out so soon after. We informed Public Safety of our disagreement with the report later Sunday morning. Though he appreciated the information, the officer said a revision of the email sent to the community was not his decision. And that was the last anyone heard about it. While we value the efforts made to share information regarding our safety, and the speed with which this information is disseminated, our testimony is an important part of this case, and it was not considered. Though it may be unsafe to walk alone on campus so late at night, the threat Public Safety reported in this instance was based on falsified information. When reading forthcoming alerts, please consider how little this one was based on and how inaccurate it was.