Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990                   TAG: 9005020022
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGES SHOULD BE UP FRONT ABOUT CRIME, ATTORNEY SAYS

Constance and Howard Clery's daughter, Jeanne Ann, was murdered at Lehigh University in April 1986 after being raped, sodomized and strangled by a male student who entered her dormitory through doors other residents had propped open for convenience.

The man was convicted and is on death row.

The Clerys sued the university, claiming that the crime was foreseeable and that Lehigh was less than honest with the public about its crime statistics.

Frank Carrington, a Virginia Beach lawyer and nationally known authority on victims' litigation who was co-counsel to their civil suit, spoke Friday at Virginia Tech.

His informal talk at a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Center for Public Administration and Policy coincided with Victims Rights Week.

The Clerys created Security on Campus, an organization that provides information to parents and lobbies states and the federal government to require stricter reporting of campus crime statistics.

"This is their therapy," Carrington said.

Six states, including Virginia, have passed legislation requiring state-supported schools to report to state police violent crimes that occur on school property.

Carrington expects a federal law to be adopted within a year.

Carrington believes the Clerys' lawsuit and clearinghouse have "forever changed the face of college and university safety."

While university public relations machines typically want to put their best face forward to prospective students and their families, they should be completely honest about their crime history.

"Forewarned is forearmed," he said.

After his talk, he encouraged a mother whose child is applying to schools in Virginia and Maryland to request crime information from those schools.

"Granted, you're publishing negative information," he said, but campus crime statistics shouldn't be viewed any differently than other state and federal requirements such as reporting Occupational Safety and Health Administration statistics or providing information so a consumer can make an informed choice.

In most civil cases, the victim sues the person who committed the crime.

While suing third parties - in this case a college - is not always winnable, a case can be made when there is evidence the party's negligence facilitated the violence and that the crime or that the chance of a crime being committed was foreseeable, Carrington said.

"Reasonable, decent security is almost a complete defense," Carrington said. But one item in the Clerys' favor was that Lehigh had 38 violent crimes in the two years before their daughter was murdered, but had only two security officers on duty, he said.

Another point to the victim is when the college fails to warn students of possible danger and doesn't make changes in security after one person is hurt and before others can be hurt.

"Colleges and universities have a legal duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably secure manner," Carrington said.

"Don't make promises of security if you're not going to back them up."

When a roundtable participant and Lehigh graduate asked about the responsibility students could bear for propping open the dorm door in the Lehigh case, Carrington said, "you've got to protect people from themselves to a certain extent. Kids are going to do that."

A dormitory security system that would alert the front desk that a door was ajar is certainly less costly than a lawsuit and worth the investment to ensure student safety, he said.

"If they won't clean up their act voluntarily, . . . a lawsuit is the only way to get their attention."