In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Johanna Justin-Jinich ’10, Sophia deBoer P’12 and Monica Valenti P’12 wrote to the Parent Listserv—an online forum for parents of current students and alumni—in hopes of starting a violence prevention group.

“I thought, ‘What can we do to prevent any further violence to our children, and not just to Wesleyan students?’” deBoer said.

After e-mailing the Parent Listserv to gain support for their cause, the pair formed the Google group Wesleyan Parents Working Against Violence (WPWAV) as “A group of Wesleyan parents who, in the aftermath of a tragic murder of one of our students on May 6, 2009, has come together to prevent violence.”

The group was founded on the general theme of violence prevention, with a particular emphasis on gun control, but has since been divided into several committees: Gun Control, Mental Health Awareness, Stalking Awareness, Relationship Violence/Violence Against Women, Sharing Information with Other Colleges, Town Relationships, Publicity/Public Relations and Grant Proposals.

To date, the group has over 130 members, who are mostly parents, as well as a few students and faculty members. Valenti and deBoer—whose children went to elementary school together in New York and now attend Wesleyan together—co-chair WPWAV, but many other parents are heavily involved, playing varying roles from organizing the group’s contact list to researching available grants.

“We have so many parents who really want to be a part of this,” deBoer said. “This has become what I do.”

Valenti and deBoer began their work by reaching out to the Brady Campaign—one of the nation’s leading gun control organizations—which now e-mails a related current events article to the group daily. Through the contacts of other Wesleyan parents, they connected with other anti-violence organizations, such as the New England Coalition to Prevent Violence. Members of WPWAV have even been in touch with parents of students at Columbine High School, as well as the Director of Peace Studies, a new department, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State (Virginia Tech).

In addition to these contacts, deBoer and Valenti e-mailed President Michael Roth shortly after the tragedy, expressing their commitment to violence prevention. Roth then forwarded the e-mail to Vice President for Diversity and Strategic Partnerships Sonia Mañjon, who invited deBoer and Valenti to Middletown for lunch in June.

The trio—along with Jennifer Tucker, Associate Professor of History, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Science in Society—had a productive lunch in which Mañjon suggested that the University hold a symposium for students in the fall.

“As a campus, we need to follow up on issues that affect us as a community,” Mañjon said. “That was a huge tragedy that affected us as a community. We needed a coordinated effort to do something as a campus.”

Valenti and deBoer then returned to Middletown at the end of July for a task force meeting, convened by Mañjon, to brainstorm ideas for the symposium. The meeting brought together people from the University community and beyond, including several students and faculty members.

Officer Tony Bostick of Public Safety (PSafe), Lisa Currie of WesWell, Maureen Isleib of Residential Life (ResLife), and Frank Kuan of the Center for Community Partnerships were in attendance, as were Acting Police Chief Patrick McMahon of the Middletown Police Department, Dean Marina Melendez of the Class of 2010, Patricia Stevenson Gordon of the Office of Affirmative Action, and Dean Mike Whaley.

“What I like to do is bring people to the table,” Mañjon said. “I work very collaboratively. As a collective, we need to decide how to move forward.”

The task force outlined ideas for the symposium—which is slated for mid-October—and then appointed a smaller planning committee to handle the logistics and organization of the event. Although WPWAV will not be on this smaller committee—the group is spread out all over the country and communicates via the Internet—deBoer was very impressed by the task force meeting.

“This was a real effort, unifying so many different departments,” deBoer said. “People were incredibly enthusiastic about doing something. People had all sorts of great ideas.”

The symposium will be titled “Day of Remembrance” and will focus on violence prevention and healing, including workshops on physical awareness, post-tragedy healing, Internet/physical stalking, relationship violence, hate crimes and self-defense. Like the task force, the symposium will include departments from across the campus, as well as members of the Middletown community.

Mañjon hopes the symposium will inform and prepare students, as much as possible, for the world around them.

“How do we make our students more aware of their surroundings, how do we give them access to resources so they know what to do in case of an emergency and who, both on campus and in Middletown, to call?” Mañjon said. “We want to be as safe as we can be. Of course we can’t be in a bubble, but we can protect ourselves.”

While WPWAV is not involved with planning the event, deBoer and Valenti plan to attend and help out in any way they can. Ideally, deBoer would like to extend the group’s influence to a national level.

As for now, the pair will continue to act as a liaison between the University and WPWAV, and between WPWAV and the general parent listserv.

In the future, deBoer hopes the group will find other ways to contribute, as well.

“I think our next step is to figure out how to be more effective,” deBoer said. “It would be wonderful if this could be a blueprint for every college.”