kentuckykernel Monday, February 4, 2019 Special Section
We see you. We hear you. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 24 between 2008 and 2017, according to the CDC. The research of UK’s Dr. Julie Cerel shows that about 130 people are impacted each time someone dies by suicide. In recent weeks, the impact of suicide has left the UK community in a state of grieving. This special edition aims to bring awareness of this harrowing epidemic, but it is also a call to action: We must take care of one another.
Monday, February 4, 2019
EDITOR’S NOTE
This is an important edition of the Kentucky Kernel. It contains stories of people who needed help, and are now beyond our help; of memories of loved ones now gone; of second chances. It contains criticism of those who can do more, but does not absolve each and every one of us from needing to do more as well. It, we hope, contains a message of hope: that we can all do more,
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Editor-in-chief
Bailey Vandiver editor@kykernel.com
Managing editor
McKenna Horsley
News editor Rick Childress news@kykernel.com Asst. news editors
Jacob Eads Sydney Momeyer
Sports editor Erika Bonner sports@kykernel.com Asst. sports editor
Chase Campbell
Opinions editor Sarah Ladd opinions@kykernel.com Asst. opinions editor Hannah Woosley Lifestyle editor Akhira Umar lifestyle@kykernel.com Asst. lifestyle editor
Emily Baehner
and be more, for each other. And for ourselves. This editor’s note serves as a warning that what comes in the next pages is not easy to read. It is heartbreaking and frightening and, as things currently stand in our society, stigmatized to talk about. But it is also necessary. In 2017, 1,347 more people between the ages of 15 and 24 died by suicide than by homicide, ac-
WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE • Talking about wanting to die • Looking for a way to kill oneself • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose • Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain • Talking about being a burden to others • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs • Acting anxious, agitated or recklessly
Art director
Arden Barnes
• Sleeping too little or too much
Photo editor
Jordan Prather
• Withdrawing or feeling isolated
Asst. photo editor
Michael Clubb
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
Social media editor Makenna Theissen kernelsocial@kykernel.com KENTUCKY KERNEL OFFICES 340 McVey Hall University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506 P: 859.2571915 www.kykernel.com ON THE COVER
People photo created by rawpixel.com
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• Displaying extreme mood swings • The more of these signs a person shows, the greater the risk. Warning signs are associated with suicide but may not be what causes a suicide.
cording to the CDC. It was the second leading cause of death for that age range, as it had been for several years before that. Because this is so prevalent in our demographic and in our society, we at the Kernel felt it necessary to compile this special edition. We hope that you learn from what you read in these pages, and we hope that you will join us in our efforts to take better care of one another.
IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW EXHIBITS WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE: • Do not leave the person alone • Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt • Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) • Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional
ON-CAMPUS RESOURCES: COMMUNITY OF CONCERN http://www.uky.edu/concern/ (859) 257-8573 GROUP COUNSELING https://www.uky.edu/ counselingcenter/groups 859-257-8701 HEALTH AND WELLNESS COACHING https://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/university-health-service/ health-education#section-80301 859-323-2778 INDIVIDUAL THERAPY https://www.uky.edu/counselingcenter/individual-counseling LET’S TALK https://www.uky.edu/ counselingcenter/lets-talk
MENTAL HEALTH SCREENINGS https://www.uky.edu/counselingcenter/do-i-have-problem-andorshould-i-seek-help UK BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES https://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/university-health-service/ student-health/services/ behavioral-health 859-323-5511 WELLKENTUCKY https://wellkentucky.org/ WELLBEING WORKSHOPS https://www.uky.edu/counselingcenter/wildcat-wellbeing-workshops
Monday, February 4, 2019
news
‘It’s OK to use the suicide word.’
UK psychologist urges students to be open when concerned about mental health By Jacob Eads news@kykernel.com
About 130 people are impacted personally each time someone dies by suicide, according to Dr. Julie Cerel’s research. After the deaths of two of UK’s own students this semester, campus leaders are hoping to initiate a dialogue about mental health and wellness, and they want you to be involved. Sophomore Taylor Nolan died in Lexington on Jan. 8. Freshman Sean Culley died on Jan. 23. Both were 19 years old. On Jan. 25, President Eli Capilouto sent a campus-wide email consoling the campus community. Capilouto’s message: No matter who you are, “you are not alone.” Apart from her roles as a UK professor and as a licensed psychologist, Dr. Julie Cerel serves
as the President of the American Association of Suicidology. Her biggest advice to the campus community at this time is to simply look out for one another. “Look out for your friends, look out for people you care about. If you’re concerned about them it’s OK to talk to them and tell them you’re concerned. It’s OK to use the suicide word,” Cerel said.
Juile Cerel
While most of the students and faculty on campus aren’t trained to recognize the warning signs of mental illness, there are a multitude of free mental health resourc-
es on campus staffed with experienced professionals who are. But Cerel said what those professionals can’t do is know when you’re close to somebody who is struggling. That’s why it’s important to watch out for each other, especially at times like these. Even if the campus community may not always talk openly about suicide, Cerel said that the impact of these events might stretch further than you’d think. “When we lose somebody we care about, of course we spend time thinking about them. It’s just when it starts occupying a lot of time, getting in the way of going to school, wanting to be with your friends and getting your school work done… is when it becomes problematic,” said Cerel. So what this boils down to, she said, is, “if you need help, get help. If you think your friend needs help, talk to them and get
them help.” Here is a list of mental health resources available free to students UK students: The UK Counseling Center offers walk-in crisis appointments. You can also make non-emergency appointments throughout the week with UKCC’s trained clinicians. If you need to consult with someone from the UKCC after business hours, you can call 859257-8701. The UKCC provides QPR suicide prevention trainings for faculty, students and staff intended to help members of the campus community recognize potential warning signs and risk factors for those who feel overwhelmed or may be at-risk for suicide. QPR has a focus on listening skills, empathic supportive responding, and being able to connect the atrisk individual with appropriate professional services.
The UKCC also holds weekly informal “Let’s Talk” consultations with experienced clinicians at six sites around campus. Appointments are not necessary for these sessions. The UKCC will host a mental health check-up and screening day for all students and staff on Feb. 13 at various locations on campus. The UKCC trains and supervises 16 mental health peer advocates who will be tabling each week around campus following the general mental health checkup and screening day until the end of the semester. The UK Veterans Resource Center works daily to assist veterans during their transition from active duty to college life. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-TALK (8225). You can also contact the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
Our shared loss; moving forward together
Campus Community, As we embarked on the early days of our new semester, our community has been ruptured by the loss of two of our students – two of us – departed far too soon. They sat beside us in our classes and at our meals; walked beside us in our hallways and on our campus paths; and experienced joy and sorrow in our midst. Such losses of people so absurdly Capilouto young and so remarkably full of promise makes dimmer our community spirit and makes heavy our individual hearts. It is inevitable that we mourn. But it is essential that we not attempt to process
these tragedies and the consequent pain alone; because we are not alone. This is a moment that summons us to draw closer to one another, further strengthening the ties that bind. This is a moment that requires of us the strength to use words like “love” and “compassion”; and the courage to admit we need each other as we question the meaning of events that sometimes elude understanding. It is this communal responsibility we each and all bear, to hold one another and to lift one another. We will get through these trying times as a UK family. As you cope with loss and pain, we insist that you consider seeking assistance across the multitude of resources available to you in our shared space. This link (hyperlinked in President Capilouto’s email) takes you
to just some of the resources available on our campus to help you with these questions and concerns. At the same time, we must acknowledge that guidance to existing resources is only a start. Over the next several days, we will have more dialogue across our shared space, starting with meetings in our residence halls and in other places. You will receive ongoing communication about these and other opportunities. My hope is that everyone on our campus – no matter who you are, where you are from, what you look like, or what you believe – can know you are not alone. Eli Capilouto UK President Eli Capilouto sent this campus-wide email on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
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Monday, February 4, 2019
editorial
We have to do better.
Alongside many students on UK’s campus, we on the Kernel editorial board are grieved over the recent suicide deaths on campus. Each time we lose a student, even when we don’t know them personally, we are reminded of the fragility of life and the importance of self-care and support systems. For the person reading this, we hope you know that there are people who care for you, even if you don’t always feel that way. We hope you know that people care for you even if they don’t know you. That a stranger can love you and support you. That people believe in you. We hope you know that as human beings, our hearts ache for you. We hope you hear us when we say that your life matters and your unique self is an irreplaceable asset to our world. We see you, and we hear you. Last September, during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, the Kernel editorial board wrote to encourage students to prioritize self-care and fight the stigma against seeking help for mental health issues. At that time, we wrote about the rise of suicide risk on campus and encouraged our audience to seek help from both friends and professionals as well as staying available to others. That editorial is even more pertinent now as we mourn the loss of our fellow Wildcats and as we look to ways to keep this from happening again. Now, as the pressure to be perfect weighs down on college students around the state and country, we come back to stress the importance of having an inward focus. Of realizing that a degree, good grades and a great job all mean very little if you’re not happy. Of knowing that it’s more important for you to be happy than for your family or peers to understand you. After the recent suicides on campus, President Eli Capilouto sent a campus-wide email in which he wrote, “My hope is that everyone on our campus – no matter who you are, where you are from, what you look like, or what you believe – can know you are not alone.” “You’re not alone.” It’s a common phrase used to console survivors. It’s meant to console hurting hearts in the midst of tragedy and remind us that others like us have struggled with battles of the mind too and that we can triumph despite it all. Yet, we all see the world through different eyes and perception is the greatest form of reality. And the harsh reality is that many students on this campus do in fact feel alone, even though (or perhaps especially because) they are surrounded by 30,000 other students facing similar battles. We have to do better.
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Our campus system of support has many flaws. If you read the submitted op-ed in this paper, you’ll hear a first-hand account of how the institution’s support system has failed students on many levels, from not giving the right kind of support to being inaccessible. UK officials would do well to take the advice in that piece to heart. So often, students just need to share, and counselors should really listen to what kinds of interactions increase anxiety and what kinds actually help the individual they’re dealing with. In addition to working to fix the flaws in the counseling system, officials on campus need to be more open with the employees and students about these issues. Students deserve to hear an honest and open discussion on mental health directly from their president. An email is fine sometimes, but when tragedies happen so publicly, they deserve an in-person response. Especially in the midst of technological separation that may increase feelings of isolation and loneliness, we need to hear and see a more sincere response from our school’s top officials. Some faculty members have expressed uncertainty over the whole situation, not having been told details by the administration officials, who should be doing more to candidly discuss this important issue that affects so many people. While still supporting the privacy wishes of the closest families involved, they should also be sharing sufficient details with the faculty and then with students. As many of us have likely experienced, a professor can be in a unique position to help students who are struggling. A well-placed word of encouragement or an assignment delay can lift students’ spirits. By trusting faculty members enough to give them details and train them to encourage students, UK’s administration can more effectively reach individual students who are struggling. UK does have a lot of room to improve when it comes to mental health help. But we also have to do our part to defeat the stigma surrounding this serious issue by being brave enough to be open when we’re struggling. By not getting annoyed at the stranger who tries to chat with us in the library when we want to study. By listening to ourselves and to others. By going with a friend to seek help. By losing more sleep than usual to cry with a friend. By devoting the same energy to being in touch with our emotions that we do to getting good grades. By setting realistic standards for ourselves. By letting ourselves and our friends know that it’s OK to be sad, that all emotions take turns. And that’s healthy. And it doesn’t have to be the end of our corner of the world.
Monday, February 4, 2019
STORY BY RICK CHILDRESS | PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES
‘I DON’T NEED THERAPY.’ Plagued by his past, student veteran Daniel Earle continually rejected help
E
llen Hyde thought she’d be OK if she just
Building on UK’s campus. Earle—an almost six-foot-
away from his own death.
“He’s going to pull a gun, he’s going
lyzed the class with death threats. According to Hyde,
her life, but kept looking forward. The class profes-
two students in the class that they would die because
between Earle and the other students. Hyde felt a
kept looking forward.
to pull a gun,” Hyde said she thought at the time. “I
was panicking, and I was trying to look forward, just
look forward so I didn’t aggravate him by turning or getting involved in any way. I was shaking, I was so scared.”
tall, 35-year-old, non-traditional student—had paranear the end of class, Earle rose out of his seat and told
they’d disrespected them, and he told the rest of the class that he’d kill them too, if they went to police.
Unbeknownst to his classmates, Earle had been
Shaking and sweating, Hyde said she feared for
sor tried to defuse the situation and had tried to get weight on her back; Earle had shoved their professor on her. She was terrified.
“I will kill you. I don’t care,” Hyde said Earle told
It was mid-October 2017, the door was closed, and
banned from the Eastern Kentucky University cam-
the class before grabbing his backpack and leaving
row of their Spanish class in the Chemistry/Physics
UK for the second time and was about five months
class was stunned.
behind Hyde stood Daniel Earle. He paced the back
pus two months prior, was about to be expelled from
the room. Her professor was OK, Hyde said, but the
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Monday, February 4, 2019
In October 2017, Daniel Earle allegedly threatened his Spanish class in UK’s Chemistry-Physics building. “I could tell he started to raise his voice and he was like, ‘Yeah, let me address something,’” said Ellen Hyde, a student in the class. “When he stood up, I could tell he was mad.”
Earle was a combat veteran, a good student and a troubled man who was bent on defending his pride at all costs by retaliating against those he felt had disrespected him. In an age that is hyperaware of school security and mental health initiatives, many would say that Earle’s life was littered with red flags. For over a year, the Kernel has obtained letters, emails, court documents, police reports and university disciplinary files that detail Earle’s tenuous college career. Several of the incidents mentioned in the police reports are not included in this article. Details about Earle’s early life and military career were difficult to obtain, and those included are details that he mentioned himself. Earle, born in Brooklyn, New York, joined the Army in 2007 at age 25. According to data from Veteran’s Affairs, court documents and statements sent to UK officials, Earle was deployed in Iraq in April 2007 and served as a military police officer in Operation Iraqi Freedom until July 2009. He spent much of his stateside career at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was honorably discharged from the
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military in 2011 and enrolled at UK in 2012. Throughout his college career, Earle wrote several times in emails and statements to the universities that he attended of a desire to become a teacher or a professor. He studied chemistry, mathematics and Spanish. In his first year at UK, Earle won the General Chemistry Excellence award, had a 4.0 GPA, appeared on the Dean’s list and, according to UK police records, threatened to break another student’s jaw. The charges were dropped. As an undergraduate, Earle began doing research in the chemistry department and he taught chemistry as a teaching assistant. Beth Guiton, the professor who ran the lab where Earle worked, told the Kernel he was a “very promising student.” ‘I DON’T NEED THERAPY’ In 2013, Earle’s supervisors became concerned with his behavior. He was put on academic probation after he screamed at another TA in front of her class of chemistry students. “Danny did a great job as a TA last fall and had been well liked by students,” a chemis-
try supervisor wrote of Earle in an incident report. “This fall (he) seems to be a totally different person.” In 2014, as he began take communications classes as electives, his behavior worried many of the staff in the College of Communications. In one class presentation, he spoke in detail about guns and gun control. He “made remarks of how he enjoyed having his weapon on him because he felt powerful and, ‘you never know if you have to blow a mother f****r’s head off,’” read one incident report, which was filed by the class professor. Internal emails from the communications college faculty at the time show that some in the college became quite nervous about Earle coming to visit TA’s and professors in their offices. Incidents were piling up, and UK student conduct officials told Earle that he’d be expelled or suspended if he had another angry outburst. “Why the f**k are you showing us this s**t?” Earle reportedly said loudly to his female communications TA near the close of a Friday class. The class had been watching
Monday, February 4, 2019 “Reel Bad Arabs,” a documentary that argues Arab people have largely been portrayed as faceless villains in Western film and pop culture. Earle took offense to the film and wanted to let his TA know. Still angry, Earle went to his TA’s office after class. He told her the film was “foolish” and that she was “indoctrinating the class.” She told him he was allowed to disagree, but he’d been disrespectful in expressing his opinion. An incident report written by the TA stated that “Daniel left very angry and I came away pretty shaken.” Earle would continue to email the TA and eventually apologize. The TA’s name has been redacted from the incident reports that were obtained by the Kernel.
She appeared to forgive Earle. “I’m sure, given your background in the military you have a very different view of the content of the movie than I do, it appears to have triggered a more deep reaction than I anticipated, having shown the film before,” she wrote to him in an email. She recommended he utilize the campus’s veteran’s resources office. Following the outburst over the movie, Denise Simpson, the director of student conduct at the time, had a meeting with Earle during which she told him to expect a disciplinary hearing, and she offered him a year-long suspension, disciplinary documents obtained by the Kernel show. Earle never showed up to his disciplinary hearing, and in his absence, the
Ellen Hyde
days i was on patrol in a beautifully up armored MRAP needs take cis (CIS course) and watch REEL BAD ARABS.” Earle appealed the expulsion and even hired a law office in Lexington to help him. UK administrators began receiving letters from Earle’s lawyers stating that the disciplinary system had accosted a veteran and had expelled him in a disciplinary hearing filled with procedural errors. UK officials reviewed the hearing but didn’t change their mind. In a letter from then-Dean of Students Victor Hazard, the university affirmed that he was expelled in January 2015. Earle sent another email to UK administrators in July 2015, but this time in a very different tone. The email addressed eight different people by name and “all faculty, staff, and students that have been offended by my actions.” The subject line reads,
panel made a decision. He was expelled. “I was expelled at 1704hrs yesterday by email,” Earle wrote in an email where he began an appeal of his expulsion. In the email he mentions his time in Iraq where he drove around in an armored MRAP vehicle. “I drove around in an MRAP playing russian roulette waiting to get blown up.” He mentioned that the TA believed he had PTSD. “I don’t need therapy,” he continued in the email, which can be confusing. “I need more patience for a foolish system that advocates that an engineering major doubling in Spanish and veteran of the MP corp US army who was basically waiting to get blown up anyone of those
Daniel Earle
“Apology: Daniel Earle.” In the opening paragraph, he apologized “first and foremost” to the female teaching assistant for his “words and behavior.” “Especially as a brother to younger sisters, I can see my words are painful,” the email read. “I don’t hate you and hold no resentment towards you. “I have destroyed an academic year and academic summer. I am destroying my goal of being a professor. ‘A LARGER LEAP’ According to disciplinary documents obtained by the Kernel, Earle was referred to UK’s Veterans Resource Center and other campus resources several times, but never made use of them. Tony Dotson is the director of UK’s Veterans Resource Center, a UK resource devoted to helping veterans transition
from the military to the college campus. He said many veterans struggle to succeed in academia, in large part because the barracks and the classroom are such different places, and because many of them don’t seek help in making the change. He said he did not know Earle and would not comment on his death, but said he would talk about the problems veterans encounter when they go from the military to a college campus. The problem, Dotson said, is that so few veterans seek help making the leap. He estimated that only 20 percent of UK’s current 400 veterans seek help at the center. Dotson said that those who don’t come in are often the ones who need help. “Transitioning from the military to civilian life is a culture shock all of its own, but to go from the military culture to the culture of higher education— that’s a larg-
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Monday, February 4, 2019
Earle joined the Army in 2007 at age 25. He was deployed in Iraq in April 2007 and served as a military police officer in Operation Iraqi Freedom until July 2009. He was honorably discharged from the military in 2011. A memorial at EKU, a Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame campus, reads, “Wars never really end for those who participate in them.”
er leap,” he said. Dotson added that in higher education in general, veterans are an “afterthought,” which he said is made clear by the gap in student-veteran success rates. Overall student-veteran success rates lag behind their non-veteran counterparts by as much as 20 percent. He said he blames a few different factors for their struggles. “You can’t really tell the difference necessarily by looking at them,” he said of most veterans in college, most of whom are in their mid-twenties. “But their life experience is vastly different. So they may have a hard time relating to their fellow classmates. They may have a hard time feeling like they belong or connect here. Some struggle more than others.” The Veterans Resource Center pre-registers incoming veterans for a transition class during their freshman year, but many veterans end up not taking it. Dotson said the course is “loosely based” on other welcome-to-UK-type courses but, most importantly, it has veteran-specific material like a two-day discussion on veteran suicide, which Dotson, who teaches the class, said usually hap-
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pens just before midterms. In the past he said he usually waited until the end of the semester. While in the armed forces, military personnel are often “inundated” with suicide awareness training. “I just put it off, you know I’m like, ‘they don’t want to be hit with that as soon as they come to school,’” Dotson said. “And I did that until I had my first suicide.” The “magic of the class,” Dotson said, is not the curriculum, but that through the class, veterans can be plugged into the university, making them feel like they belong— and giving them friends and connections. “That belonging is one of things they miss out of the military because they were part of something, part of a unit, part of a team,” Dotson said. “When they get out, they realize that civilians don’t operate that way. A lot of them miss that connection— and that class serves as that connection.” But many veterans don’t take his class, don’t seek help at the center and don’t make those necessary connections. He blames this partially on the fact that those who need help need to declare
themselves as veterans to receive help. Many student-veterans don’t do this and Dotson argues that this alienates them from the center or any other group that offers services to veterans. He said that if the university “made an effort to take care of all of our non-traditionals for example, by definition, we’d take care of all of our veterans.” ‘I KNOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT’ “I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” said an Eastern Kentucky University student as she declined an interview. She worked in the EKU math tutoring center where Earle had worked after he left UK and enrolled at EKU. She said that everyone knew Earle and suggested that he had a bit of a reputation. In fall 2016 and spring 2017, Earle was the subject of multiple calls to EKU police. All were people continuing to report his allegedly threatening and intimidating behavior. Earle twice received academic sanctions from the university. In the fall, police were called to Earle’s dorm after his roommate told police that Earle had threatened to harm him. His roommate was
Monday, February 4, 2019
Light streams through the window of the entrance of Earle’s former apartment. On March 29, 2018, Earle was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound in his head. The death certificate states that he had been dead for “day(s).” The exact time and moment of Earle’s death is not known. The Jefferson County Coroner ruled it a suicide.
moved to another dorm. Earle wrote in an email addressed to his roommate and EKU’s administration that he was being framed after he told dorm supervisors of his roommate’s alleged smoking in their room. Earle wrote that he wanted his former roommate to know that he wouldn’t back down from a fight. “I eat to fight and live to fight. Also escalation is a deeply held virtue of mine,” the email read. “…I’m not LIVING for a Mathematics degree or future pension. I will die for my pride.” In one notable and lengthy report, EKU police interviewed, received reports and screenshotted text messages involving an incident in which Earle allegedly threatened several students in the
Latino Student Association at EKU, an organization that Earle also appeared to have been involved with. Earle allegedly confronted students in person and made actions that “traumatized” some students. He sent long, threatening and profanity-laced text messages that addressed many members of LSA. “If you mad come see me, if they mad tell their boyfriends brothers husbands come see me,” Earle texted, according to screenshots of the messages that were included in EKU police reports. “Let me know if y’all want to talk about fighting or some other violent s**t.” Earle sent the message to many of the members
Ellen Hyde will never forget
E
llen Hyde saw something, said something and feels that she’s still suffering for it. “I have anxiety on a good day,” Hyde said in June 2018. “It got significantly worse. Especially this past semester. It’s consuming.” Hyde and her family say UK put her in immediate danger by how it handled Daniel Earle and
his alleged death threats against his Spanish class. Ellen’s father Chuck said it’s something they’ll never forget. In October 2017, Hyde was one of the first students to report Earle for allegedly threatening their Spanish class with death. She called UK Police, then she called the Office of Student Conduct. That office told her it
had given Earle her information—before he was arrested or expelled. The man who had threatened their class with death, now had Ellen’s name. Ellen said the fear of “revenge” from Earle changed her drastically. She said she worried that Earle would “show up with a gun and kill people.” UK has maintained since the incident that they had to give Earle the names of his
of LSA. “As a friend, I know you are better than that Daniel,” one LSA member responded to Earle. “That was not necessary man. I just don’t want you to get in trouble.” The next day, EKU police received another report from a faculty member stating Earle “is escalating his threatening and violent behavior,” through messages that he was sending LSA members. EKU asked Earle to attend a disciplinary hearing in front of an on-campus panel. Similar to what Earle experienced at UK, the panel would decide whether he broke university policy in sending the threatening texts. The disciplinary panel, which Earle did appear for, found him guilty and gave him university probation. Earle withdrew from the university. In August 2017, Earle was retroactively banned from EKU’s campus after he again allegedly threatened some of his former classmates, EKU police and disciplinary documents show. “Your behavior indicates that you are a potential threat to the safety and welfare of the entire campus community and you have no reason to be
Story continues on page 10
A student walks through Burnam Hall on EKU’s campus, where, in the fall of 2016, police were called to Earle’s dorm room at Eastern Kentucky University after his roommate claimed Earle had threatened to harm him.
accusers or else UK could not take the necessary steps for expulsion. Chuck said giving his daughter’s name to Earle was a mistake that he’s worried UK will repeat in another situation. The professor’s name should have been given instead of Ellen’s as a proxy, he said. UK should not “hide behind” its students. Ellen and her family say the incident changed them
permanently. Ellen was no longer a person ambitious to break out of her hometown and meet new people. Instead, she graduated college with anxiety. Ellen’s story was first reported by the Kernel in February 2018 in a story headlined “She saw something, she said something and she feels like she got punished for it.” Check out the full version online at kykernel.com.
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Monday, February 4, 2019
Tony Dotson, director of UK’s Veterans Resource Center, sports a blue pin on his lapel. He received the pin for writing Earle’s name on a post-it note at the UK Day of Remembrance ceremony in April 2018. Every day, 22 veterans die from suicide, he said. “Really there’s no reason for these young men and women to reach a point of hopelessness, their future— their whole future is ahead of them,” Dotson said. He said that like in so many other veteran suicides, he never knew Earle.
on any EKU campus,” a letter written by Kenna Middleton, EKU’s dean of students, read. The letter was sent on Aug. 24, 2017. The day before, Earle began classes at UK. The university had rescinded his expulsion after a lawyer in UK’s legal office reviewed his previous expulsion and decided that the punishment was not “appropriate” for his previous actions, a UK disciplinary document showed. ‘WILLING TO DIE FOR MY PRIDE’ In August 2017, Ellen Hyde had three Spanish classes, and Earle was in all of them. She said he loved to participate in class and give his opinion. He spoke with a heavy New York accent. She saw him as an older man who’d gone back to get his degree and was “clearly interested in the material.” “He was always involved in class in a positive way. He would interrupt a lot and he would say his opinion and I didn’t mind but I could see others getting annoyed,” Hyde said, adding that many students would give “dirty looks” to Earle. In mid-October, Earle reportedly snapped, in
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Daniel Earle spent about two months in state prisons until he was released on bail in January 2018. He attended multiple hearings in the Fayette County District Courthouse including one instance where “he exhibited loud outbursts of inappropriate behavior which disrupted court. This behavior continued into the holdover, where loud profanity could be heard in the courtroom,” court documents show.
the incident detailed at the beginning of this article. It would be Earle’s last threatening episode in a college classroom.
A UKPD police report filed after the incident alleged that Earle pointed at two students in the classroom. He accused one of the students of cheating off his test, and told them both that he would kill them and “he also mentioned that if police were to get involved, they would suffer the same.” Earle threatened to “kill you motherf*****s” and said that he was “willing to die for my pride,” a student report from the incident stated. In statements defending himself later, Earle said that he never threated to kill anyone in class. He said he was just wanting to defend himself against “the blatant disrespect.” He wrote in the statement that he was in school to “secure a career” and defend his “livelihood.” “Yes, I’m very much willing to die for my pride,” Earle wrote. “I will hold firm to that till the end.” ‘RESPECT’ Still reeling from the episode in class, Ellen Hyde didn’t know what to do. So she called her mom, Maureen.
Monday, February 4, 2019 “Immediately when I heard her voice I said ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’” Maureen said of the phone call she got just after the incident. “… I heard her voice, and your heart just starts pounding so hard when you hear that, when your kid talks like that.” Maureen told her to call campus police. Ellen did. Then Ellen contacted the Office of Student Conduct, a decision that the Hyde family said they regretted. Ellen and her father, Chuck, first brought the story of Earle to the Kernel in late 2017. In that story, Ellen and her family contend that she was put in immediate danger by the university’s handling of the situation. The fear of “revenge” from Earle, changed Ellen drastically she told the Kernel in June 2018. Despite Earle constantly denying his threatening the other students, a three-person UK hearing panel recommended that Earle be expelled. Based on Earle’s previous history, multiple witness statements from students in the class and the professor, Earle was found guilty. “He embraces a philosophy of being that allows him to be the arbiter of acceptable and unacceptable classroom decorum for others and empowers him to use confrontation and threat of violence as a tool to demand his definition of ‘respect,’” the hearing panel members wrote of Earle. “This outlook is antithetical to functioning in a civil society.” Earle was arrested on Halloween and was charged with second degree terroristic threatening— a felony. He was kept in jail for about two months while he waited to receive a mental status evaluation. Court records show that a particularly explosive outburst in the courtroom had judges worried
that he was a threat to society. Earle was released on bail in January 2018 and was due back in court in March. Just after his release, a Kernel article, which recounted the alleged threats in Spanish class and prominently featured Ellen, was published and widely circulated locally. Ellen began to be inundated by messages from people who said that they’d also been threatened by Earle. But with Earle released, her fear heightened. “I was extremely overwhelmed with how many people reached out to me about stuff he had done,” Ellen said. “...That just kind of added to my fear towards him. “They always ask could something have been done? What were the warning signs? How could we have avoided this?” Ellen said. “With this something could have been done, it’s just that nobody cares enough.” ‘DAY(S)’ Earle missed his March court date in Fayette County, court records show. A new warrant was issued for his arrest. A letter containing a court summons that was sent to Earle’s apartment in Louisville went unopened. It came back to the court with “Return to Sender” stamped across it. The exact time and moment of Earle’s death is not known. He was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound in his head on March 29, 2018. The death certificate states that he had been dead for “day(s).” The Jefferson County Coroner ruled it a suicide. Multiple trips to the apartment complex by Kernel reporters yielded little information. The apartment complex managers said they knew nothing of a suicide, and a couple who
lived near Earle said they never saw him. Court records show that Earle was cremated in Kentucky and his remains were shipped back to his family members in New York. Multiple comment requests sent to Earle’s family though their lawyer and by mail have gone unanswered. Patti Costello, a professor in the EKU math department who had worked closely with Earle, said the whole department signed a card and sent it to an address they thought belonged to Earle’s family. In early April 2018 at the UK Day of Remembrance ceremony, Dotson, the director of UK’s Veteran’s Resource Center wrote Earle’s name on a sticky note and stuck it on a board that held the names of others in the UK community who had died in the past year. Dotson, who is an annual attendee at the ceremony, describes it as a solemn occasion with less attendance than it deserves. He received a small blue heart pin to commemorate the occasion. This is not the first time Dotson has received such a pin. In fact, his desk drawer at the Veterans Resource Center is full of them. Many of them he has received on behalf of veterans he knew who have died from suicide. “Really there’s no reason for these young men and women to reach a point of hopelessness, their future— their whole future is ahead of them,” Dotson said. Every day, 22 veterans die from suicide. Dotson said that like in so many other veteran suicides, he never knew Earle. “I never saw Dan—not once,” Dotson said. “That’s the issue. That’s the problem.”
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Monday, February 4, 2019
opinions
I sought help. I still felt alone.
My freshman year at the University of Kentucky was the lowest, most depressing point of my life. Currently, as a senior in college attending a different university, I read news headlines about the recent deaths of two students on campus and feel again the same pain I had felt three years ago. Thinking to myself, “Wow, those headlines could have been about me. I didn’t realize that would have been the reaction if I had actually followed through with my thoughts.” I really hope to God that other students, faculty, UK fans and alumni aren’t reading those headlines and just brushing it off. Those students definitely were not, and are not, alone. I am living proof that mental health on UK’s campus needs some adjustments. As a student who was not affiliated with any Greek life or practiced any particular religion, it was extremely difficult to find friends and happiness in the Bluegrass state. I came from a high school in south Jersey where I wasn’t a very popular girl, but I was very involved in sports and school clubs, such as the debate team and journalism club. I played for the number one high school field hockey team in the nation; I played field hockey year-round on a club team for five or six years as well. Along with that, I thought I had found my calling when I was enrolled in journalism my junior year and became editor-in-chief my senior year, where my staff’s paper won first place in the state for the first time ever. I went into college confidently, thinking I knew my calling and would succeed at the coolest college around.
12 | kentucky kernel
At Kentucky, I studied journalism as well as equine science. I have always been reserved yet outgoing, and I did make friends around campus. I was part of clubs and attended parties. So why was I still lying in bed at two in the afternoon on a Saturday contemplating what was wrong with me and refusing to get out of bed to go eat or brush my teeth? My first two weeks at UK were not overwhelming, but exciting. I had met so many people and campus was so big; I saw so much opportunity. I immediately became involved with the Kentucky Kernel and wrote articles. Turns out I was pretty good at it; I had at least three front page articles by the time winter break hit. Granted, I had to introduce myself to my Journalism 101 professor Buck Ryan on four different occasions, but I still felt as though I was succeeding. I had networked with many professionals and made friends in classes, and I went out to parties every once in a while. Something was still off. I still found myself sitting in my room watching Netflix while my roommate went out and socialized. Being a washed-up athlete, I frequented the gym quite often to get my fix. I was nervous at first but eventually walked through the free weights downstairs like I owned the place, not intimidated by all of the buff, brawny guys who are constantly pumping iron. I tried to use the gym to get rid of my depression and dark thoughts, sometimes going two or three times a day. As active as I was, as many events as I went to, as many friends as I made, I always felt alone. I would make friends and
meet people, get their contact info, and never see them again. I had friends in classes who would invite me out, but after a while who can you trust? The last time I recall hanging out with friends from class, I just remember riding in an Uber to some apartment somewhere, which was fine, but feeling a little uncomfortable because the friend I had made was a guy. He and another friend seemed to like me a lot and talked to me. We got along, but I don’t think we were on the same page. Everyone present then left the apartment to go to another, larger party. The second I walked in, I saw lines of meth on the coffee table, people everywhere, and I heard a puppy barking from somewhere—what turned out to be the kitchen. I made a beeline for the puppy cries, trying to get rid of the male figure who thought I was his “new friend.” After about five minutes of me evaluating my situation I walked all the way from some apartment complex across from Red Mile back to my dorm. Pretty much every time I tried to go out and socialize that’s how it went. As the weather got colder I began to stay in my room more and more. It got to the point where I would only go to class, go to the gym, eat, sleep and some days not talking to anyone. Usually the gym would sweat me out of whatever funk I was in, but that stopped working eventually too. I would stay in my room, hiding, for days. Weekends were the worst because I had no job, no class, and I had no car to drive me away from my problems. I sat in my room for so many hours I think I unintentionally put myself in my own personal psych ward, isolating
myself. I still went to classes, talked to friends, worked out. No one saw what was actually happening on the inside, and if they did, they didn’t understand how intense or serious my problems were. I picked up an extremely dangerous habit of drinking and things kept getting worse. No one understood how serious my drinking problem actually was, but that gave me the green light to keep abusing the bottle and not receive any backlash for it since drinking is a very normal thing for college students to do. Spring semester, after going home for winter break, I picked up an internship at Keeneland and kept writing for the Kernel. Things still were not right. I still felt so alone; I didn’t want to go spend time with friends. I felt bad because even when I was spending time with friends I was counting the clock, watching when I would be able to go back to my room: my safe space where I could relax and breathe and not feel any anxiety. I knew this was a problem, so I reached out to UK’s mental health center. I don’t remember much, only that I used to pass the ROTC center on my walk to my group meetings. That was one thing I didn’t like, the group meeting. My first visit consisted of me sitting in front of a computer filling out a long survey about how I felt, then meeting with someone face to face, listening to them telling me I would be best in an anxiety group session. I was mentally weak and a little nervous to be in there so I agreed, even though group therapy sounded horrible. It was. I’m not the type of person to open up to people, even ones close to me. Going to my
See ALONE on page 13
Monday, February 4, 2019
letter to the editor
Remembering Sean Culley
We are struggling here in New Jersey. We are struggling with what to say to our own young men and women that went to bed last night without a dear friend. Sean Culley was new at UK. As all of our young adults were missed, hugged and sent off to school after Christmas break, we all prayed for them. Our row of little beach towns here creates bonds that are shared by summer sleepovers, days on the beach, flip flops and bikes on the lawn. It’s a small nirvana that involves “whose house is everyone going to now?” Sean is and was a loyal, funny, hardworking polite young man. He would laugh at himself when he messed up in basketball. He would laugh all the time. He was an athlete. He was kind. He would always take the extra time to sit with my husband and me when he came to see our
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
group sessions every Wednesday was helpful on a personal level; I learned “mindfulness” through the sessions and was very thankful for the resources and information they provided me through the group. Once it was over I still did not feel any real change. I still felt alone in a sea of students. I would cancel plans, not attend class, call in sick just because I physically couldn’t escape the solitude of my bed. Some people did notice my behavioral changes throughout my year at Kentucky. My mom and step-dad visited with their two dogs. I asked to stay in their hotel with them and slept with the dogs on a pull-out couch. It was more comforting than my lonely room. My dad visited and brought my dog and little sister. It was a surprise and I tried to hide my
son. He was the goofy and sensitive one. I feel compelled to write this to you to convey not only who Sean is and was but to remind us all that we all have a little bit of Sean in us. A struggle that we are battling to win and try to do it alone. But we don’t have to do it alone. Some of Sean’s friends are gathering tonight to eat, talk, pray and process. I was up all night trying to think of what to say to them as they enter our home. All I can think of is this: If you’re sad, feel sad. Don’t push it away. If you’re angry, be angry. Face it. But, then, process it. Look at it head on and say “OK. I feel this, but how can I work through it?” When you’re at a red traffic light, you stop. Then eventually you move forward. The same is true with grief. Eventually
tears from them when I picked up my dog and hugged her. I wish I had expressed my emotions more clearly to everyone now but I am lucky to still be here. Better late than never. Reading these headlines about the deaths of students opened my eyes: I really am not alone. Even as a current senior in college I thought I was the only one who considered suicide while living on UK’s campus. These headlines would have been about me if I had reached that breaking point, which I came close to more times than I will ever admit. Here is my advice to the University of Kentucky: Do not just say “you are not alone.” Give them resources other than some rickety old health center building that is at least a 30-minute walk away from the majority of the on-campus housing. Provide more counselors to accommodate the mass amount of students you
finding resilience is the ultimate goal. I want to say to you, to your readers, to the fellow students of Sean’s that no matter how bad the day is or the ongoing situation is... everyone fits into this life like a well-woven blanket. There’s a purpose and a gift you’re given; you just need to find it and keep your eye on that prize. It will come. Because if you don’t, the blanket will lose a thread and unravel. Sending love to the UK community. We will miss you, Sean. We already do. Deborah Marini of New Jersey is a Mental Health First Aid instructor and the owner of the Awareness Impact LLC (theawarenessimpact.com). Marini is the mother of a friend of Sean Culley’s. She wrote and submitted this letter to the editor on Jan. 25, 2019. ≤≤≤≤≤≤≤
have. Ask them what type of service they would like instead of having students fill out some long online survey and placing them in a group therapy session. The way the University of Kentucky handles mental health needs to be made a priority and should be more accessible to students. It can be intimidating for depressed or anxious students to reach out for help, which is why it is so important for help to be easily accessible. Even when I did reach out as a UK student and agreed to group therapy, there were many days I would fake being sick just because I didn’t feel like walking all the way over there because it was drizzling outside. If the mental health center was closer to the dorms or had more accessible hours, more students might be inclined to seek out help and work through their problems. I know, at the moment, only one of the two students’ recent
deaths were confirmed suicide. I still stand behind both students’ deaths and cry out to the university that something should change. There is a group of students on campus who are silent yet struggling. No matter how involved someone is on campus or how many friends they have, anyone can struggle with a mental illness. There needs to be more accessible outlets for struggling students to seek out help, and it needs to happen now, before another student falls down the same dark and lonely path which I fell down, which Taylor Nolan and Sean Culley fell down, and which many other silent students fall down every year. Morgan Lafferty is a former UK student who attended UK during her freshman year but transferred to a smaller university. She is now a senior and submitted this op-ed to the Kernel for publication.
spring 2019 | 13
Monday, February 4, 2019
14 | kentucky kernel
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spring 2019 | 15
Monday, February 4, 2019
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