Monday, July 2, 2018 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
For coverage of Independence Day activities in the Bloomington area, visit idsnews.com.
Student claims IU violated Title IX From IDS reports
MATT BEGALA | IDS
A woman and child hold up signs while chanting during the #FamiliesBelongTogether rally Saturday morning outside the Monroe County Courthouse. The event was organized by the Families Belong Together Coalition and took place nationwide, featuring over 600 rallies, including one in Indianapolis.
Protestors: “Keep families together” Bloomington residents join #FamiliesBelongTogether movement By Matt Begala mtbegala@iu.edu | @itsbegala
Though the volume coming from the single PA speaker on the steps of the Monroe County Courthouse was quiet, the message was loud and clear: reunite immigrant families. Over 200 people in Bloomington and thousands more across the nation gathered as part of the #FamiliesBelongTogether marches and rallies which took place Saturday in response to the zero-tolerance immigration policy set forth by president Donald Trump’s administration. Outside the courthouse, demonstrators battled immense heat to show their support for reuniting families that have been separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks. Speakers at the event included Gavin Everett of the Bloomington Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, a professor of law at IU. Fuentes-Rohwer also emceed the event and is of Puerto Rican decent. “This moment here today, now, it is about our future,” Fuentes-Rohwer said. “It is about what it means to live in this country.” Abby Ang, an associate instructor at IU, also spoke at the event while representing the IU Muslim Student Association and said the zero-tolerance policy extends to the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump’s travel ban, which targets several predominantly Muslim countries. Ang said the Trump administration’s immigration policies are “racist and xenophobic.” Another speaker, Bloomington attorney Christine Popp, who, according to her webSEE PROTESTORS, PAGE 3
MATT BEGALA | IDS
Top A woman holds a sign that reads “We are a Gentle, Angry People” at the #FamiliesBelongTogether rally Saturday morning outside the Monroe County Courthouse. Bottom A man holds a sign that reads “Fight Ignorance not Immigrants” at the #FamiliesBelongTogether rally Saturday morning outside the Monroe County Courthouse.
“The Show Must Go On” pays tribute to Queen By Varda He vhe@iu.edu
It was a busy night for Stages Bloomington on Friday evening. By 7 p.m., the cozy little theater already had a full house. On the stage, the band was busy setting up gear and testing microphones. Friday night marked the opening act for the Monroe County Civic Theater’s “The Show Must Go On: A Queen Cabaret.” Around 30 people gathered at Stages Bloomington to see the show, which was dedicated to the memory of Michael Anthony “Tony” Benton, a cast member who died in May. The show ran for three nights and, after performing at Stages Bloomington on Friday, it moved to Oddball Fermentables on Saturday and Player’s Pub on Sunday. According to the MCCT’s official website, MCCT was founded in 1986 by a group of local artists dedicated to providing positive theater experiences to all members of the Bloomington community. Nowadays, it remains Bloomington’s only all-volunteer, amateur theater organization. “The MCCT is a very diverse community,” Board Liaison Maryann Iaria said. “We are also proud to say we are now a dementia-friendly theater.” Show director Katelin Hope Vesely said she came up with the idea of creating a cabaret based on Queen songs when she was in high school. “I wanted to adapt ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as a musical number for my school’s chorus, but everybody thought that would be a little too difficult,” Vesely said. “I would like to take that idea and transform it into
ZHENG GUAN | IDS
Mary Emma, center, and her son, Kingston Heaps, left, perform during the show “Queen Cabaret” on Friday night in the Artisan Alley. Mary also sang with another vocalist, Jeff Smith, for the song “Killer Queen” by Queen.
something bigger, I just couldn’t think of what. I then realized that a lot of Freddie Mercury’s songs are very theatrical. As our season originally didn’t have a lot of comedies in it this year, my show is a way to make things brighter and more fun.” Vesely said she tried to place the songs in an order she thought would make sense to her. “My idea has more to do about individual songs and how they can be fit together into a cabaret-style musical,” Vesely said. The biggest challenge of bringing
her vision to life, according to Vesely, was the organizational aspect. “We have a lot of cast members, so not everybody is always available for rehearsals,” Vesely said. “Therefore, it can be a bit difficult scheduling days and making sure everybody knows the songs he or she is responsible for.” Despite time differences, Vesely said the cast members had all immensely enjoyed the production process. Some members have spent over 100 hours working on the show. The show began with a cover of
the production’s titular song “The Show Must Go On,” followed by several fan favorites such as “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions” and “Under Pressure.” Each song also came with its own theatrical elements. In “Killer Queen,” cast member Mary Emma Heaps dressed up in a wig and fancy costume, while her fellow performers, in accordance to the lyrics, offered her a wine glass, cake and a cigarette. SEE SHOW, PAGE 3
IU has come under fire after tweets from a student about her sexual assault case went viral. The student, Ellie Johnson, posted online that the University violated Title IX multiple times while investigating her case. Her first tweet about her case was posted June 25, and has been shared more than 2,000 times and been liked almost 5,000 times, and resulted in the creation of the #WeStandWithEllie hashtag, along with numerous responses and interactions with other Twitter users. In a series of tweets posted by Johnson since June 25, she said IU violated Title IX and University procedures in her sexual assault case. In a Twitter direct message to IDS reporter Nyssa Kruse, Johnson said she “filed a complaint, had a hearing, appealed the outcome” and recently received the appeal outcome. She said her appeal was denied and that IU was “standing by their original decision.” She tweeted she hired an attorney to appeal her case, but didn’t get a rehearing. Johnson also tweeted June 25 that she emailed more than 10 University officials a month ago about the Title IX violations, and no one had gotten back to her. Later on June 25, Johnson tweeted she got an offer to meet from IU. At one point June 26, Purdue University’s Twitter account joined the conversation and began responding to Johnson while IU had yet to do so. Later that day, Johnson tweeted she would have been better off not reporting her case to the University, saying “I could’ve spared myself the heartache, despair and agony knowing the system was against me from the start.” On the evening of June 26, the University published a response on social media and also provided a fuller statement to the Indiana Daily Student when asked to do so. In the statement provided by Chuck Carney, IU director of media relations, he reaffirmed the process used by the University in the investigation, as well as IU’s commitment to fostering a safe environment for students, faculty and staff. “A three-person panel, pulled from a pool of faculty and staff who receive extensive training in matters of sexual assault, carefully considered all facts and evidence presented and rendered its decision, which is based on a preponderance of evidence,” Carney said in the statement. While unable to comment on details of the specific case or on the areas of study for the panelists, Carney confirmed that after the initial investigation, the decision was affirmed in an independent review. In fall 2017, the IDS published “The System,” a four-part series offering an in-depth investigation into IU’s extra-judicial process. According to that reporting, hearing panelists are selected based on a list of IU employees who have completed IU’s sexual misconduct training. The training is available to faculty and staff across various departments, and no legal expertise or continuing education is required. One panelist must be a student affairs administrator, and each member must complete an annual day-and-a-half-long seminar composed of in-person and online parts, but those are the main components for eligibility on a panel overseeing sexual assault cases. Johnson tweeted June 27 that IU threatened to withhold medical documentation from the panelists if she didn’t agree to put the information on the online Box at IU sharing and storing service. She also tweeted this was a new rule established with her, five days before her hearing. Johnson responded to the University’s online statement on her Facebook, claiming IU “completely ignored the issue at hand in their statement and they didn’t provide any specific actions they are taking,” and the University has “screwed over HUNDREDS (sic) of survivors for decades.” She also responded to the University’s online statement on Twitter, saying “IU is trying to reduce this to a single, isolated incident. This issue is so much bigger than my case.” Cameron Drummond Dominick Jean