Tori Lemon
Editor-in-Chief
On Wednesday, April 4, at 2:30 a.m., a large group of predominantly track members engulfed the Cummins dormitory hallway. With a total of 10 people involved, a fight broke out resulting in only four of the students getting arrested and sent to jail with $1,000 bonds.
“This was all a response to an altercation that happened earlier at the Villas, off campus, out of our jurisdiction,” Chief of Police Jason Kenney said. “There was probably 10 individuals that came into Cummins, on the other side of it, to either retrieve some property that was lost in the Villas during that fight, (a cell phone), or I believe they wanted to continue the fight and win.”
The initial fight started in one of the dormitory rooms and eventually spilled out into the hallway. Regardless of all of the noise, the dormitory’s resident assistant (RA) wrongly mistook the loud sounds as being “normal.”
“I just remember waking up in the middle of the night because it was so loud, and I had heard some doors slam,” Shelby Kraus, one of the RAs for Cummins, said. “I didn’t really think anything of it because some nights, people are running around in the dorms late at night. I just thought it was normal.”
During the entire fight, security or any one of authority was not present. For some, this raised worry as to the safety and security of the dorms themselves.
“It’s 2 a.m., and they were so loud and security hadn’t come out at all,” Charnice Anderson, who was present, but did not involve herself in the fight, said. “Security didn’t come out the whole time, from start to finish.”
Kraus admits that more action should have been taken on her part.
“I probably should’ve taken more caution and got out of bed to check the situation out rather than just assuming it was just girls being obnoxious and loud,” Kraus said.
Once the Butler Public Safety officers were informed, it took witness statements, video footage and interviews to piece together what all exactly happened early that morning. The police made a decision to arrest four people, three of which include freshmen Eliyah Spencer, Rebekah Hamilton and Kai Lewis.
“We arrested three females for various charges ranging from battery, assault, criminal damage to property (because they were trying to kick the door and did damage to the door) and then one male was arrested,” Kenney said. “He was observed in our video, recording everything that was going on. We asked him for the video, and he didn’t want to comply, so he was arrested on obstruction or impeding on investigation.”
The four student athletes were transported to the Butler County Jail and were held until they could bond out. As a result of the fight, an appeals hearing was held on Wednesday, April 11, and all four were kicked out of the dorms, leaving the students with no other place to stay. Because all four are out of state residents, they cannot leave the state of Kansas to return home until after their court date on Monday, May 14.
How it Started:
Police reported that the catalyst of this altercation was because of a post on the social media platform, Snapchat. Once the confrontation began, two women agreed to fight one another at the Villas at a set time and date.
Those personally involved had a different story.
One student who was arrested, Eliyah (Eli) Spencer, explained that this fight and the tension surrounding those involved has been building up since late February of this year.
“I say about late February,” Spencer said. “The girls were involved in a fight with my teammates, Destiny {Woodward} and Rebekah {Hamilton}.”
He claims that the young women, on the other end of the fight, physically assaulted one of his friends, hitting her over the head with a glass bottle. These same women allegedly sent threatening videos to Spencer and Hamilton. All of these events occurred at the Villas. Disappointment followed when they reported these incidents, and nothing was done.
Hamilton, a student athlete, is the one claiming to be the victim of these threats and assaults. She explained how the fight was inevitable given the history between her and the others involved. Her frustration stems from no action being taken with either the campus police or school administration.
“We’ve been dealing with this the whole school year,” Hamilton said. “We {have} made it known to the school back in February, and nothing was done about it. I have a written statement. I talked to Bill {Rinkenbaugh and} talked to Chief Kenney.”
What are the consequences?
According to the Student Code of Conduct, found in the student handbook all students have access to, fighting could result in various outcomes for those involved: “Student behavior that is contrary to adopted school policy will result in appropriate disciplinary action. Grounds for probation, suspension or expulsion include: Individual or group behavior which substantially impinges upon or invades the rights of others, disrupts, impedes or interferes with the operation of any college class or activity. Such conduct includes (but is not limited to) assault, threats to the personal safety of one’s self or others, throwing objects, making excessive noise, unwelcome physical contact, or hazing/ bullying.”
Just like any other investigation, there is a process in how consequences are decided.
“We sent a report to the college because it happened here on campus,” Kenney said. “That report is written by the Deputy Chief {Tim} Kamholz. He was the investigator on all of this. He does a report, sends it to me and I review it, then I send it to Rinkenbaugh and Jessica Ohman. Jessica, based off the report, the evidence, the video, the statements, goes off of the student handbook and code of conduct, and then comes down with sanctioning.”
Once a decision is made on the consequences, students have a right to appeal the disciplinary action brought against them to a committee.
“When students violate the Student Code of Conduct and disciplinary action is taken, the student has a right to appeal,” Ohman, associate vice president of student services, said. “This appeal goes to the Student Review and Appeals Committee. The committee is made up of representatives from the academic divisions appointed by the deans of the division, three student services representatives from the Enrollment Management areas and a representative from the Student Government Association. The Student Review and Appeals Committee determines if the action taken was appropriate or if other disciplinary action is appropriate.”
Kenney explained that the three women, among them Hamilton and Lewis, and one male suspect, Spencer, were removed from the dorms. They had a week to file an appeal with the committee and completely move out. This was issued at the time of arrest, and nor formal process was explained to those arrested about what they should do.
How could have this been prevented?
According to Ohman, situations like this can be prevented by simply following the student handbook.
“In order to prevent incidents from happening, students need to understand and follow the Student Code of Conduct,” Ohman said. “Appropriate disciplinary action is taken {once} a student violates the Student Code of Conduct. Maintaining a positive educational and working environment is the ultimate goal and the reason for the Student Code of Conduct.”
Kenney suggested that perhaps lack of communication and trust between students and the police was the downfall in this situation.
“Our suspects for what happened at the dorms and the ones that went to jail, were the victims of what happened at the Villas,” Kenney said. “So had they just called El Dorado PD {Police Department} or call us, we would have been taking the other group to jail. Had they called us, none of what happened in Cummins would have happened.”
Why only four of the 10 students involved were arrested and held to the standards in the Code of Conduct was not explained. However, it has raised concern from those involved, as well as students and faculty on campus.
The Aftermath
Those arrested, who wanted to be interviewed, feel as though an injustice has been done to all of them.
“They {the others involved} didn’t get kicked out, even though they fought on camera, only the four of us got kicked out,” Spencer said. “It’s like they’re punishing one side way more severely than the other side. The rules are unfair.”
While Spencer agrees what they were involved with was wrong, he does not believe the punishment fits the crime.
“Nothing, nothing is ever done until it explodes in your face,” Spencer said. “I just think it’s just crazy like the fact that we’ve brought {this} up, {and} we showed the police videos of the girls threatening my teammates. I personally didn’t fight, but I’m getting punished the exact same way as if I were fighting. I went to jail like they did. I’m gettin’ charged like they did. We got suspended from the team. We had to do community service. It’s like it’s a hammer. When you get in trouble, {it} is to teach you a lesson, not to hinder you. I feel like we are young adults, we should be held accountable, but this is overkill.”
Picking the pieces up after everything was said and done was one of the hardest parts for Lewis.
“Honestly it has a drastic impact on us because we ended up falling back in classes,” Lewis said. “We were off track, like literally off of track and field for two weeks. Two wrongs {do} not make a right by no means, and you shouldn’t be the only ones being held accountable in this degree. It’s not fair. And it’s really hard to understand or to comply with anything that’s going on when we’re the only one that’s in trouble for everything that happened.”
Spencer, Hamilton and Lewis are keeping their fingers crossed that their appeals will be heard and justice will be served–to all parties involved.