Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[ Background Discussion ]
>> Jeanne was just everything any mother would ever want
and she was my joy, she was our family's joy.
[ Music ]
She didn't have a major, she was just a freshman
but I think she would have majored in sociology
or psychology, something to do with people.
When we went to Lehigh, Jeanne fell in love with it
and I was so thrilled
because not only was it a very attractive campus
but it was one hour and fifteen minutes from home.
Nothing could have shocked me more than to learn
that she had been murdered
at the safest place we could imagine.
[ Music ]
>> I was a lead investigator
for the university police department at the time.
Myself and two state troopers were assigned to the case.
We investigated and brought the investigation
to a conclusion with an arrest and conviction
of a fellow student.
You hope you never come across anything like this.
It's not something that occurs at any university
on a consistent basis now.
>> Jeanne Clery was a college freshman
who was brutally *** and murdered in her residence hall
by another student whom she did not know.
This happened during April of her freshman year.
>> I don't know how I could have survived it
without my faith in God.
I know I could not have.
And when I saw those policemen I sat down and asked them
to tell me what it was.
After that I think I have a blank.
I have a blank.
>> What they had found out had happened was that some
of the residence hall doors were propped open
by other students and Jeanne's door was unlocked.
She had left it unlocked for her roommate that night.
>> It just didn't make sense that she, my joy,
my gift from God, was murdered so horribly in a place
where I thought she was so safe.
After all the horror and the shock began to wear off
and I began to talk to people I realized this had
to be happening other places.
>> Shortly after Jeanne's death, Jeanne's parents,
Harold and Connie Clery, started to research through the FBI
about campus crime and what they found was not very much.
They found there certainly was quite a bit of crime
on campus but there was nothing really governing response
to campus crime or prevention of campus crime or any type
of campus policies that should be in place on campus.
So they started a crusade.
>> The week after the funeral, I think it was, my friend,
Joanne Bagnell, [phonetic] she said
"What are you going to do, Connie?"
And I said "I don't know, Joanne,
I don't know what I'm going to do
but I'm going to do something".
>> You can make the argument that the work that they did
in the beginning certainly was quite adversarial.
I've heard them talk countless times
about losing friends throughout the process
but they really saw a need to go forward.
>> We knew we had to speak the truth even though we were
told by lawyers we better not.
And we were terrified but we had to attack
because there was no other way we felt
that we could get the truth out.
We lost a lot but the fight was worth it.
>> They went on and worked with a number of victims
and families throughout the country and passed state laws
and then from there they went on and worked
on the Federal Jeanne Clery Act which was passed in 1990.
>> I have seen this bill from its inception
but more importantly I worked as a county district attorney
for almost six years and a federal prosecutor
and United States Attorney for another seven
and have had the chance to be intimately involved
with many issues regarding violence,
particularly violence against women,
and have learned to see the Clery Act as one
of the very important tools that I think are out there
to protect victims of violence.
>> Crime reporting is critical when it comes
to overall campus safety, comparing, you know,
universities with one another.
The new law that took place after this, you know,
tragic incident, puts everybody on an even playing field
where parents and students can view crime statistics
from other universities and compare statistics
and what is a safe campus and what is not.
>> The law is not about placing blame.
If it is implemented correctly on a campus,
if the campus is taking steps
to proactively address loopholes or policies,
then they'll really be in a good position for compliance
as well as making campuses safer for their students.
>> Howard and I always knew that the best security system
in the world could not help to save lives really
on a college campus unless the students were educated,
knew the facts and took upon themselves the responsibility
to try to make themselves safer too.