The following letter was forwarded to members of the Feminists of Smith Unite Club, as soon as we arrived back from WAM.
I am in the last weeks before my graduation from Smith College, and this Friday the Judicial Board made the decision to evict me from student housing on the grounds that I am responsible for the behavior of my husband. Under our current code of conduct, the actions of a student’s guest are the responsibility of the student who brought them to campus.
As many of you may know from the news or email, my husband was recently arrested at our home in Conway House, which is Smith housing for families with children. I filed a restraining order and signed a release for Public Safety to search our apartment.
When I took a stand against my husband’s physical threats, verbal abuse, and substance abuse problem, I knew that I would be giving up my primary means of support. My children and I now have no income and no vehicle, and their father is facing felony charges. And now I'm told that I have a week to vacate my apartment.
I believe it is incredibly problematic for a feminist institution to allow a woman and her young children to be defined and identified by, as well as unduly punished for, the actions of her husband, especially when she has taken a stance against those actions.
I did what I believed was right at the time. It has taken me months to find the courage to take decisive action, and now Smith's judicial process has decided that the months I took to deliberate and explore my options somehow negate the fact that I took action. In the course of these events unfolding, I have been advised several times by well-meaning people that I should lie. I was told to say "I don't know" when asked about the drugs and firearm my husband harbored in our space. I was told to pretend that I just found out about these things so I might save myself from any incrimination. But I refuse to lie. I will not feign ignorance when I know the truth.
I hate to think about the precedent this sets for women who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future. I hate to think that a woman living in constant fear might choose to stay silent and endure because she knows that I was evicted for speaking up “too late”. When I got the decision from the Judicial Board, my first reaction was resignation. I was ready to pack up and go home to Alabama. Then I thought, what happens if I let this go? What happens if the women who come after me get the message that it’s better to live dishonestly and in fear than to risk standing up? What happens if the message that it’s better to create an illusion of security wins out over the action needed to create genuine safety? What happens to that woman’s sense of selfhood when she knows that the community will define her by her partner’s choices instead of her own?
So I’m asking for your help. I only have a matter of days. In the final weeks of my time here, my children need as much stability as possible and I need the space to get back to the work I came to Smith to do. I’m asking that anyone and everyone who might be on my side do one or more of the following:
*Email President Carol Christ at cchrist@smith.edu, or call her office
at (413) 585-2100.
*Email the Dean of Students, Julianne Ohotnicky, at johotnic@smith.edu, or call her office at (413) 585-4940.
*Forward this email to others who might support me and my small children.
With Sincere Gratitude,
Georgia Pearle
Well, Feministing community, I think you know what to do.
(Cross posted at the FSU Blog )
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Georgia,
I'm so sorry to hear that your school is doing this to you. I know how painful it can be to deal with an abusive relationship, and that's without the institutionalized victim blaming. It's stunning that a school for women would have so little understanding of domestic violence that they would kick you out of your housing for not reporting it immediately. It sounds like another version of the old refrain "she brought it on herself because she didn't just leave".
I'm writing a letter on your behalf right now, and will send it to the addresses given. I will also pass it on the few people I know who will help.
Have you considered also posting this on other blogs in addition to Feministing, or sending to a newspaper? I have no idea if others might publish this, but it seems like it's worth a shot. Since explaining your situation to you school faculty didn't help, perhaps publicly embarrassing them by posting this as many places as possible would? If nothing else, maybe it would warn other women who are considering Smith and could end up in a similar situation. Just a thought.
Best of luck,
Lee
I don't think Georgia knows its being posted here; its being forwarded around and was already posted here a few days ago. If you want to say something to her I think you need to find another way to contact her.
Thanks for making us aware of this problem at Smith, FSU. I want to let you know that the ACLU Women’s Rights Project defends the housing rights of domestic violence survivors. We have fact sheets and other materials available at www.aclu.org/fairhousingforwomen. Survivors of violence facing housing discrimination as a result of the abuse they have experienced can also contact us at womensrights@aclu.org or (212) 549-2644. Please pass this on to Georgia and anyone else who might find it helpful.
— Sandra Park, Staff Attorney, ACLU Women's Rights Program
Those of you who are planning to write regarding this situation may want to further familiarize yourselves with Georgia's situation. Some of the circumstances that factored into the Judicial Board's decision, and Georgia's options (including appeal) as well as an outline of just some of the many resources available to her through Smith College, the Five College consortium, and Pioneer Valley social services, are detailed in this article from the campus newspaper
http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2009/04/02/News/Judicial.Board.Decision.Stirs.Controversy.Across.Campus-3702973.shtml
I would also add that, while of course Georgia deserves support, so do the other women with young children living in the building that her ex brought drugs and guns into. Their home should be maintained as a safe space for them, too.
Sorry, but no "victims" were punished at Smith College. A *student* violated the housing code by allowing her room and storage area to be used to store eight garbage bags full of pot, a small quantity of hash, an unregistered rifle, and 200 rounds of ammunition. She allowed this to continue for several months, endangering not only herself and her children, but the other 20+ residents of Conway House (among them a dozen other children and family members of students), the students, faculty, and staff of the college, the students of the campus school, and the residents of Northampton and Hampshire County who visit Smith's Museum, use its library, and attend concerts and lectures in its buildings.
Georgia Pearle is playing the victim card very successfully, and I am frankly sickened that people who do not know the extent of her behavior are falling for her "poor little me" whining. She may be a victim, yes, but there are plenty of resources at Smith and in Hampshire County for the victims of domestic violence. That she only didn't use them, but that she allowed her husband to bring weapons, ammunition, and large quantities of drugs into her dormitory, makes her just as liable for any deaths or injuries that might have resulted if her husband had decided to use that gun to shoot up the campus, or sell those drugs to the students or local residents.
I'm sorry that Georgia Pearle feels that the school has somehow let her down. But I'm even sorrier that she feels that her status as an abuse victim entitles her to let her dorm room be used as a warehouse for drugs, guns, and ammo, and I 100% convinced that the people who are rushing to support her wouldn't be nearly so supportive if her husband had pulled a Charlie Whitman and blown away half the senior class at Ivy Day.