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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 83 NO. 236
Indecent A&B charged By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A Westfield State University student who refused to take no for an answer has been arraigned on charges which include indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14-years-old. WSU Officer Caitlin McCue reports, in a court document, that she was dispatched to a university residence hall last Friday for a possible sexual assault. McCue spoke with a female student who told her that a male friend, Kristopher E. Howard, 18, of 22 Cheaspeake Road, Holbrook, had been trying to get other friends to leave. Two witnesses told McCue that Howard had become angry when they would not leave the room and said “He had been forcing (the victim) to drink alcohol all night long.” The victim said that she told the man repeatedly that they were not going to have sex but he was persistent and “ripped my belt of and then he put his hands up under my shirt” although she told him to stop. “I told him at the beginning of the night we were not going to have sex,” the victim told the officer. She also told the officer “I know him from home and we have hooked up before.” Howard had left the residence hall before any officers arrived but he was found en route to the WSU south parking lot and arrested when he was found to be in possession of a water bottle containing vodka he said he had taken from a girl’s room. He was subsequently charged with being a person younger than the legal drinking age in possession of liquor, providing alcohol to a person younger than the legal drinking age and indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14-years-of age. He was arraigned Monday in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant who set his bail at $2,500. Howard was found to also be the defendant of a pending case in Quincy District Court where he is charged with three charges of breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, two charges of malicious destruction of property valued more than $250 and larceny of property valued more than $250. Assistant District Attorney Magali Montes filed a motion to revoke bail in that case but Contant deferred to the Quincy court and declined to intervene in that case. Howard was scheduled to appear in Quincy on yesterday but did not appear and the case was continued until Jan. 13. He was able to post the $2,500 bail and was released pending a Dec. 2 hearing. He was enjoined for making any threats or violence toward the named victim.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — Carl Gustav Jung
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014
75 cents
Board endorses zoning change Reports of campus sex crimes rise proposal
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD — New England’s largest colleges reported about 40 percent more sexual assaults last year compared with 2012, an increase experts attribute to heightened awareness of the problem and to more victims coming forward. Reports of “forcible sex offenses” climbed to 289 last year, up from 206 in 2012, according to a Boston Globe review of data that 29 colleges provided in annual federally mandated reports released last week. While complete data will not be available from the U.S. Department of Education until at least December, the Globe reached out to a select number of schools for updated numbers. At all but four of the campuses in the review, the number of sexual assault reports rose or held steady last year. “It means that students are coming forward and reporting crimes that are happening and ending that culture of silence,” said Alison Kiss, director of the Clery Center for Security On Campus, a nonprofit that trains colleges to comply with the federal Clery Act. Under the act, colleges are required by October 1 each year to issue a report that includes statistics of allegations of crimes that occurred on campus, including dorms and other public property; at property owned by, but separated from, the main campus; and at fraternities and sororities. Specialists also believe the spike in reporting may be because colleges are becoming more thorough and transparent in collecting and disclosing sexual assault data. At Westfield State University, the number of sexual assaults have increased in small increments and an
increase in alleged assaults is anticipated in coming years due to more awareness and training students are getting on what constitutes sexual assault. “Sexual assault, sexual violence, dating violence, those are serious public health concerns and we need to be able to feel like we’re doing the most we possibly can to ensure the safety and respect of our campus environment,” said university spokesperson Molly Watson. “This year we had our students undergo HAVEN (Helping Advocates for Ending Violence Now) training and bystander intervention training.” Watson added that 750 first year students recently attended a sex-signals workshop that reinforced the
definition of sexual assault. “Are there incidents on campus? Yes, but we’re taking steps to make sure everyone feels comfortable. We’re protecting the victim’s rights and making sure that survivors have the support that they need,” she said, adding that the university tracks crime statistics on a monthly basis, posting them to the campus crime log every 48 hours. These monthly statistics are compiled in the university’s annual security report, which is posted to the school website. “Our numbers are not what you’d see at a major school, but that’s probably in-line with what they’ve always See Reports, Page 3
WSU appoints Johnson to new position By Peter Francis gating complaints of sexual harassment and Staff Writer sexual assault.” WESTFIELD – In an email sent earlier this She stated that Johnson has also taught week, Westfield State University President courses on Title IX, VAWA, Affirmative Dr. Elizabeth Preston informed the school’s Action, Title VI, the Family Educational student body that Lawrence Johnson was Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the hired as the new Director of NonAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Descrimination and University Compliance through Rider’s graduate program in following a national search. Organizational and Leadership Johnson, currently the associate dean of Development. students at Rider University in Lawrenceville, “Despite ongoing efforts to prevent their New Jersey and dean of students for Rider’s occurrence, sexual assault, dating violence, Westminster Choir (Music) College in and stalking remain very serious public Princeton, New Jersey, will assume his new health concerns, impacting both individuals Lawrence post at Westfield State on October 20. and the larger community.” said Preston via Johnson As Director of Non-Descrimination and email. “The statistics are shocking. Nationally, University Compliance, Johnson will report directly to one in five women are sexually assaulted while in colPreston and will work with campus offices on complying lege.” with the provisions of the Clery and Violence Against Preston stated that incoming students are now required Women Acts (VAWA), along with Title IX and other to attend HAVEN (Helping Advocates for Ending federal statutes. Violence Now) and AlcoholEdu training, and that stuIn the email, Preston said that Johnson, an attorney, dents who attended orientation went through bystander has “extensive experience in facilitating sexual harass- intervention training, and that 750 first-year students ment training to university constituencies, developing campus policies around sexual harassment, and investiSee Johnson, Page 3
Track could open soon By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Residents and students could be running on the new high school track by the end of the month. Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barry told the school committee this week that the track is nearly complete, but that the track cost is over budget by nearly $10,000. “There is a cost overrun,” said Barry. “It’s not significant, but it’s there.” Barry said another $9,547 is needed to finish the track, plus there is an additional cost for a sign dedicating the track to coach and former teacher Dick Atkinson, as well as Steven Nielson, a STGRHS
graduate who donated the bulk of the track construction cost through the Steven and Elizabeth Nielsen Gift Fund. Barry said he spoke to Nielsen about the shortage and he was willing to give additional funds to offset the cost. Barry said he would come back to the committee at it’s next meeting for permission to use approximately $15,000 of capital funds. He also said he wanted to proceed with a dedication ceremony this month even without a sign. “Mr. Nielsen will be here in mid-October,” said Barry. “And when I spoke with him he made a good point about making See Track, Page 3
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board members voted unanimously last night to give a positive recommendation to a zoning ordinance change that will allow another use in land zoned for industrial A (IA) uses. The ordinance amendment will allow “commercial amusement, recreation, and assembly” by special permit and site plan review in the in the Industrial A zone similar to what has been allowed in the Business B zone, City Council President Brent B. Bean II, who presented the amendment to the Planning Board, said change allows a “pretty passive use” in the IA zone. “We’re lucky we have open land, most of it in the Industrial A zone. I’m trying to give this option in that zone,” Bean said. “It’s allowed in Business B and only makes sense that we have it, by special permit through the Planning Board, in Industrial A, as well.” Bean said that there is a project under consideration, but said that the amendment language “is pretty broad” and “doesn’t speak to a specific project.” “Zoning changes, 95 percent of the time, are related to projects because we just don’t go through our ordinances (on a regular basis) to see if they need changes,” Bean said. “This is indoor/ outdoor recreation that can’t be done in the Industrial A zone. It was allowed in 2007, but was deleted.” Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said the language of the proposed amendment is the same language for Business B zoning. See Zoning Change, Page 7
Planners request project modification By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board requested an applicant for a special permit to allow reuse of an existing building to modify the plan to address traffic and pedestrian safety concerns. Land-use consultant Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associated, presented the plan for reuse of a vacant building located at the corner of main and Mechanic streets owned by Rocco J. Falcone Sr., through FRP Holdings. The hearing was complicated by the fact that a residential building at 10 Mechanic Street, set to be demolished, was included in the special permit application if additional parking at 64 Main Street was required. Levesque said the 10 Mechanic St. property could provide up to 17 additional parking spaces, but that his clients decided to forego that option. “Parking will be in front of the Main Street building,” Levesque said, adding that the lot can accommodate three spaces including one handicapped space. Levesque said that both properties are in the CORE district which does not require additional parking See Planners, Page 3