2008 Woodie Awards
Student restrained on campus
By: Lanz Christian Banes
Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Webster Groves police assisted paramedics in restraining an agitated male student Oct. 7. The student was taken to a local hospital.
According to a 911 call logged by police, the student, a resident of the Webster Village Apartments Building 5, was "belligerent and maybe on drugs."
At least two squad cars, a fire department vehicle and an ambulance responded to the call and congregated in the parking lot between WVA Buildings 4 and 5 and West Hall. In addition to emergency response crews, several resident assistants of both the WVA and the residence halls were present to help with crowd control.
Witnesses described seeing officers carry out the student to the ambulance with his hands tied to his feet behind his back. The student had been intermittently yelling for about one hour before being placed in the ambulance at approximately 12:30 a.m.
John Buck, assistant dean of students, was called to deal with the incident and arrived on the scene at 11:15 p.m. Oct. 6. Because of its medical nature and concerns about privacy, Buck was unable to comment specifically about who the student was, why the student was agitated and whether the student had been belligerent.
Witnesses from West Hall, who had talked to the student from their upper-story room, warned the agitated student to calm down, because they could see the RA on-call beginning to come towards the student's room.
Bailey Barrett, WVA Building 6 RA, was on call that night and declined to comment.
RAs are trained to respond to any situation, including one as dramatic as this, Buck said.
"That part of their training is fairly elaborate and fairly comprehensive," Buck said.
Buck described how RAs are presented with possible scenarios and forced to deal with them in order to hone their skills and confidences.
Though not dismissing its seriousness, Buck said this was not the most intense situation he's had to deal with in his career at Webster. Much more seriously, said Buck, a 36 year-old resident of the WVA died of natural causes in fall 2004.
Buck said there would be no public meetings held for residents to discuss the Oct. 7 incident.
According to a 911 call logged by police, the student, a resident of the Webster Village Apartments Building 5, was "belligerent and maybe on drugs."
At least two squad cars, a fire department vehicle and an ambulance responded to the call and congregated in the parking lot between WVA Buildings 4 and 5 and West Hall. In addition to emergency response crews, several resident assistants of both the WVA and the residence halls were present to help with crowd control.
Witnesses described seeing officers carry out the student to the ambulance with his hands tied to his feet behind his back. The student had been intermittently yelling for about one hour before being placed in the ambulance at approximately 12:30 a.m.
John Buck, assistant dean of students, was called to deal with the incident and arrived on the scene at 11:15 p.m. Oct. 6. Because of its medical nature and concerns about privacy, Buck was unable to comment specifically about who the student was, why the student was agitated and whether the student had been belligerent.
Witnesses from West Hall, who had talked to the student from their upper-story room, warned the agitated student to calm down, because they could see the RA on-call beginning to come towards the student's room.
Bailey Barrett, WVA Building 6 RA, was on call that night and declined to comment.
RAs are trained to respond to any situation, including one as dramatic as this, Buck said.
"That part of their training is fairly elaborate and fairly comprehensive," Buck said.
Buck described how RAs are presented with possible scenarios and forced to deal with them in order to hone their skills and confidences.
Though not dismissing its seriousness, Buck said this was not the most intense situation he's had to deal with in his career at Webster. Much more seriously, said Buck, a 36 year-old resident of the WVA died of natural causes in fall 2004.
Buck said there would be no public meetings held for residents to discuss the Oct. 7 incident.
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