Clery Act Training

[ Background video of Jeanne Clery ]

Connie Clery:
Jeanne was just everything any mother would ever want and she was my joy, she was our family's joy.

[ Music ]

Connie Clery:
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 ]

Edward Shupp:
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.

Alison Kiss:
Jeanne Clery was a college freshman who was brutally raped and murdered in her residence hall by another student whom she did not know. This happened during April of her freshman year.

Connie Clery:
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.

Alison Kiss:
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.

Connie Clery:
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.

Alison Kiss:
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.

Connie Clery:
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".

Alison Kiss:
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.

Connie Clery:
We knew we had to speak the truth, even though we were told by lawyers that 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.

Alison Kiss:
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.

Rep. Patrick Meehan:
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.

Edward Shupp:
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.

Alison Kiss:
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.

Connie Clery:
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.

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