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OU is not always aware of sex-offender attendees
By Julia Fair, Athens NEWS Contributor
While the university seldom if ever knowingly admits a sex offender, it likely wouldn’t learn about the offender if the crime occurred when he or she was a juvenile
This past academic year, a registered sex offender became a Bobcat.
Ohio University was unaware while the Athens County Sheriff’s Office built a file of information on the young man.
As required by federal law, the student registered all of his personal information with the Sheriff’s Office. That included his full name, gender, any tattoos, home address, volunteer and school addresses, among other information.
The law enforcement agency didn’t notify the community that the offender had enrolled at OU, though they could have.
In the past, student applicants who have committed sex-related crimes that might have caused them to be a registered sex offender have been barred from attending OU, according to records from OU’s Legal Affairs office.
Between 2010 and 2017, 31 individuals with sex-related criminal pasts were denied attendance on the Athens campus after university officials became aware of their histories.
In 19 of those cases, the sex crimes involved minors.
OU has a Post-Incarcerated Review Committee consisting of representatives from Legal Affairs, Undergraduate Admissions, Student Affairs and the Ohio University Police Department. Those representatives review the files of every student felon who applies to OU, including those convicted of sex-related crimes.
“To be a registered sex offender, a person would almost certainly have been convicted of a felony, which would trigger the review process,” then OU spokesperson Katie Quaranta said in an email from September 2015. “While we consider each case individually, we consider sex offenders very carefully and usually impose significant restrictions, if they are allowed to apply at all.”
Quaranta has since left employment with the university.
Individuals from the committee were unavailable for an interview, Dan Pittman, OU’s media relations manager, said on March 23, 2017.
“If an applicant for admission to the university discloses a prior conviction with ‘sex offender’ status, it is highly unlikely… that the Post-Conviction Committee would approve admission to an on-campus program,” John Biancamano, OU’s general counsel, said in an email in March 2016.
If they are juveniles when they commit the crime, though, those records are not available to the community even after they reach 18.
Usually, when an individual follows a court-mandated sex-offender registration, his or her information is available on the local Sheriff’s Office website. Community members can type their own address in, select a radius of one to five miles from that address, and see how many sex offenders live within that area.
Under Ohio law, a juvenile sex offender (meaning he or she was a juvenile at the time of the crime) would not show up in that public search.
Instead, only the officials in the Sheriff’s Office know about the student sex offender’s registration. Then they decide when and if the university is notified, according to federal SORNA implementation documents.
It’s happened before and can happen again
Above the bars and small businesses, and students scurrying to class on Court Street, an OU student sex offender (a different one from the juvenile offender mentioned at the beginning of this article) rented an apartment and attended classes in 2013.
That student was a juvenile when he committed the sex crime, classifying him as a juvenile sex offender. According to Ohio law, juvenile sex offenders are not published to the Sex Offender Registration Network for community notification. That system holds information about more than 80 sex offenders who live in Athens County.
The student’s Court Street address would not have shown up on one of the aforementioned online searches.
“When you’re convicted as a juvenile, your information never becomes public,” explained Brynne Morris, Sex Offender Registration Network Administrator (SORNA) at the Athens County Sheriff’s Office. “So you may still be required to register but your information is not going to be posted.”
It’s not clear if that juvenile offender’s sex-crime past was reviewed by OU. The records obtained from the office of Legal Affairs dated back to 2010. If the student who lived on Court Street graduated on a four-year track, he would have applied to the university in 2008 or 2009.
Back then, the Sheriff’s Office apparently was still unaware of that student’s Court Street residence, which being located within 1,000 feet of the Athens Middle School would have violated a residential restriction on sex offenders in Ohio.
“He basically moved in there without us knowing and then once we found out, he was charged,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Aaron Maynard, who oversees sex-offender registration for Athens County.
That student sex offender was charged in connection with violating the 1,000-foot limit. All sex offenders are restricted from living that close to a school.
He was set to graduate four months later, but the civil process to remove him from the residence would have taken more time than that, Maynard said.
The student moved out shortly after graduating from OU, following an agreement between his attorney and the Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office, however, didn’t relay that information to university officials sitting in their offices less than a mile away.
The offender attending class this year
In August 2016, the most recent juvenile sex offender registered with the Sheriff’s Office, listing OU as his school address.
The Post-Incarcerated Review Committee did not review this student’s application materials, records show.
The committee did evaluate, however, seven other individuals who committed sex-related crimes before beginning the process of applying to OU to start in August 2016.
Only one was “approved” or allowed to continue the application process after he was found guilty of disseminating material harmful to juveniles in 1997. That adult offender is not a registered sex offender, Pittman said.
Six were denied access to apply.
Those individuals’ crimes include corruption of a minor, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, endangering welfare of a child, possession of child pornography, lewd acts with a minor, illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance and rape.
The specific crime the student sex offender who came to campus last August committed remains unknown.
In 2013 and last August, 2016, the Athens County Sheriff’s Office was the only entity that knew the student sex offenders who had committed their crimes while juveniles were on campus. OU apparently did not know about them.
There is no legal requirement for the Sheriff’s Office to notify OU, however, despite federal guidelines advising that it’s a good idea.
Registering at the sheriff’s office
Sex offenders are required to register with the Sheriff’s Office, and although not required by law, the Sheriff’s Office would notify the university if an adult student had registered, then-OU spokesperson Quaranta said in September 2015.
The Athens Sheriff’s Office follows a different protocol for juvenile sex offenders, however.
“We legally can’t call them and say, ‘Hey, this person is taking classes here,’ because we can’t give them that person’s name,” said Lt. Maynard, who also handles sex offenders in Athens County for the Sheriff’s Office, said. “We legally can’t do that.”
The ACSO approach is different from federal guidelines, however.
SORNA Implementation documents suggest that “responsible law-enforcement agencies” develop a policy to notify institutes of higher education when a juvenile sex offender attends a school within the jurisdiction.
The guidelines say the purpose is to provide further guidance to jurisdictions on a variety of topics when implementing SORNA.
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office did not follow those guidelines in August 2016.
When the federal guidelines were shown to Lt. Maynard, he said his office works based on local and state guidelines.
“I can’t speak on a document that does not mention the Ohio Revised Code,” Maynard said.
The Sheriff’s Office decides what kind of notification the community receives about individual sex offenders, including juvenile offenders, based on the ruling of the judge who oversaw the initial sentencing of the sex offender, Maynard said, which is based on the severity of the crime.
“If the Ohio Attorney General gave us updates that would advise us to do something different, we would certainly do that,” he said.
Other schools
Few institutes of higher education in Ohio go beyond SORNA’s suggested practices.
At Ohio University, the only notification measure appears on the OU Police Department website. From there, students can follow a link to the Athens County Sheriff’s Office website where they can access the Sex Offender Registration Network, showing registered sex offenders within a one- to five-mile radius of an address. However, since OU rarely if ever knowingly admits a sex offender to campus, a policy on notification would appear to be unnecessary.
An extensive review of university policies from the 35 public institutes of higher education in Ohio show only five with policies about notifying the campus community of any sex offenders who may be on campus.
The five include Belmont College, Central State University, Hocking College, Lorain Community College and Washington State Community College.
Those policies stem from the federal Campus Sex Crime Prevention Act that went into effect in 2002. That law was intended to guarantee that, when a convicted sex offender enrolls or begins employment at a college or university, members of the campus community will have the information they need to protect themselves, according to Central State’s policies website.
Central State students in Wilberforce, Ohio, near Dayton, rely on the Greene County sheriff’s office to notify campus officials when a sex offender lists Central State as his or her school address so the appropriate notification can be made.
The federal Campus Sex Crime Prevention Act was part of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Registration Act, a federal law which was repealed when the Sex Offender Registration Notification Act went into effect in 2009.
“Most colleges will still (keep a list) even if it’s not technically a federal standard because it’s just good practice,” said Lori McPherson, a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Belmont College officials never thought of dismantling the list once the CSPA was repealed, said R.J. Konkoleski, vice president of advancement and marketing for the school.
“It’s not something we saw a reason to stop, but it’s not something that we necessarily feel obligated by law or otherwise to do,” he said. “It’s been our practice since we had that childcare.”
With Belmont College’s status as a two-year technical school in St. Clairsville, Belmont County, there used to be up to 40 children enrolled at a childcare facility in the same building where a college course was scheduled, Konkoleski said.
“I think the fact that we have that list is a carryover from those times,” he said.
The majority of the schools that keep the lists are classified as community colleges while Central State University in the Dayton area is the only university that keeps a list of student sex offenders.
The local Greene County sheriff would notify the university president or the university police of the registered sex offender on campus, said Laurel L. Wilson, general counsel of Central State. The university would then take steps to notify students, faculty and staff.
“The action is taken to provide protection to the students and staff,” Wilson said in an email.
Hocking College gave similar reasons justifying its student sex-offender reporting policies, citing safety and awareness as its main concern.
“As a professional police department, we advise our community to be aware,” said a Hocking College representative who declined to be identified. “Likewise, we practice this.”
Hocking College’s policy states that students who are required by law to register as a sex offender also must report their status with the college. The Hocking College Police Department then maintains the list of student and employee sex offenders on campus.
Not all colleges or universities have extensive policies about student sex offenders.
“What the policy looks like is going to vary from campus to campus,” McPherson said. “There’s not a set policy or set federal law that governs what colleges have to do.”
The colleges get to set their own standards, McPherson said.
“Even if there’s not a federal standard, even if there’s no best practice or base line, you can still push your campus folks to do more,” McPherson said.
Some inmates at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail are turned away due to lack of bed space
Some inmates are being turned away when they report for their jail sentence at Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail.
When individuals are charged with a misdemeanor, they may have to commit themselves to the regional jail in Nelsonville. A lack of bed space, primarily for female inmates, causes that rejection of inmates who show up for a misdemeanor sentence, which is no more than six months in Athens County Municipal Court Judge Todd Grace said.
Grace said he gives those inmates credit, which acts as a day spent in jail on their record. The jail serves Athens, Hocking, Morgan, Perry and Vinton counties.
“It can affect the justice system,” Grace said. “There are always reasons why there is limited space, mostly financial ones. The funding streams are not robust enough.”
The inmates who are serving the short sentence terms are usually repeat offenders, violent offenders and people who are not following the rules of their probationary status, Grace said.
“The first time we find that jail is appropriate (for someone) would be a relatively short sentence,” Grace said.
When those inmates report for commitment and follow the orders the court has given them, it’s “not their fault” that there isn’t enough space at the jail for them.
“I do get entries that are prepared from individuals that have reported appropriately and were unable to serve,” Grace said. “I give them credit for the days that they reported.”
Female inmates have a higher chance of getting that credit because when space is tight, it’s usually with female inmates, Grace said.
“It’s more likely that there will be a female inmate that would not have bed space available. That’s true for all (affected) counties,” Grace said.
Teresia Trace, a correctional officer at the jail, said she sees problems stemming from not having enough beds for female inmates as well.
“They have to report the next day, they continue to report until there’s a bed open for them,” she said.
John VanBibber, the warden of the jail, said male inmates don’t get turned away as often, but it happens primarily with females because the facility is usually at capacity with female inmates.
That’s due to the number of female inmates increasing throughout the past 10 years, he said, adding that the facility has plans to expand, but final plans have not been decided.
In order to avoid one individual having a “benefit” of a credit of a day spent in jail over someone spending time in jail, Grace said he might have to lower the sentence duration across the board to keep the sentencing fair.
“I have people that are similarly situated. I want them to be similarly punished or try to get them in the same treatment systems,” Grace said. “It’s not ideal that there are times when they would go and be turned away for bed space issues.”
Grace said when bed space is low, there’s not another option for dealing with an influx of inmates.
The inmates being turned away are usually guilty of a minor crime, Vanbibber said.
“It would be more along the lines of DUIs, domestic violence, minor assault,” VanBibber said.
Those guilty of rape or child molestation aren’t given the chance to self-commit, he added.
@Fair3Julia
Ohio University sees an increase in sex-crime reports this year
JOSHUA LIM | FILE
This time in 2014, the Ohio University Police Department received six sex-related crime reports. This year, it’s received almost quadruple the amount.
So far, OUPD has received 23 reports of sex-related crime in 2015 that vary from alleged public indecency charges to alleged rapes.
Although that number may seem high, OUPD’s Lt. Tim Ryan said sex-related crimes may not be on the rise. He added that the high number of reports may just be part of increased reporting among survivors.
“I’d like to think it has something to do with maybe messaging and outreach, but it’s really hard to say,” Ryan said.
Ryan added that there is a countrywide effort to make the reporting process “an approachable one.”
In the past, Ohio University’s Survivor Advocacy Program worked very well with OUPD, Ryan said. Additionally, the Athens Police Department and the Athens County Sheriff’s Office each keep a survivor advocate on staff. Those advocates can be accessed by asking the department to talk to an advocate.
Delaney Anderson, the former program coordinator for OUSAP, left her position in October, leaving OUSAP without a licensed and credentialed program coordinator. The university is looking to reevaluate the position, and for now people are asked to reach out to Counseling and Psychological Services and Campus Care for confidential support, according to a previous Post report.
“I hope victims are seeing the support that’s out there and making the decision to report because of that,” Ryan said.
In the past six years, reports of sex-related crimes have fluctuated, with the last peak taking place in 2010 with 23 reports total.
Chance Brinkman-Sull
Though OUPD has seen an increase in reports of sex-related crimes, the city of Athens has not, APD Chief Tom Pyle said.
“There’s two different environments we’re dealing with,” Pyle said. “You have the campus environment, and you have the off-campus environment.”
Even though the statistics for each location vary, Ryan said numbers don’t always accurately portray what’s really going on.
“Statistics are really hard for a police department to get our head around because it’s hard to tell if you’re actually deterring crime or not,” Ryan said, adding that it’s hard to say why incident rates are higher or lower from year to year.
Ryan said OUPD Chief Andrew Powers has conversations with other college police departments, and other campuses have also seen an increase in reports.
When someone approaches OUPD about reporting a sex-related crime, the department takes him or her through the steps before proceeding to an investigation.
“We start by explaining the process so that person knows what they’re about to get into if they choose to,” Ryan said.
Court processes, evidence collection and general investigation procedures for sexual assaults are discussed, Ryan said.
“Sometimes victims choose to go that road and pursue the criminal prosecution,” Ryan said. “Sometimes they do not.”
In Powers’ recent email to university students, it was outlined that most of the sex-related crimes on campus this year started with consent, but it was revoked later in the encounter.
“When consent is revoked, you are committing a crime, and people need to know that,” Ryan said.
Some students on campus think the increase in conversations surrounding sex-related crimes may have helped students feel more comfortable reporting.
“I definitely think it’s been a really talked-about conversation this semester compared to last year,” Sasha Gough, a member of F–kRapeCulture, said.
Gough, a sophomore studying creative writing, said events like the video created by the university shown before The Hunting Ground, a documentary showing the mismanagement of sexual assault cases on college campuses, and discussions with professors in class are contributing to students’ education on the topic.
“It’s slowly becoming more of a topic people are learning more about than years previous,” Gough said.
In her social deviance class, Gough said her class discussed the topic of rape.
Patty Stokes, an OU professor and the adviser for Body Consent, the sister group to F–kRapeCulture, talks about sexual assault in her classes as well, Gough said.
“Students are bringing it up more often, so teachers and professors have to talk about it a little bit more,” Gough said.
Although discussions throughout campus are evolving, Gough added that the uncertainty surrounding Ohio University’s Survivor Advocacy Program is worrisome to students.
“SAP was the opposite choice. If you were to go to a professor, you’d have to report,” Gough said. “You could go to SAP and not have to report and still get all these different needs met.”
OUSAP provided someone to go to the hospital with you, among other resources, Gough said.
“SAP is kind of on the rocks,” Gough said. “It shows a lot how the university is prioritizing. It’s more about reporting than what the students might find comfortable.”
@Fair3Julia
Students proceed with caution when signing leases in Athens, Ohio
Soon to be upperclassmen likely have one thing on their mind — renting their first apartment or house, even though it’s only the middle of Fall Semester.
When students sign a lease, it legally binds them to everything that’s written out in the document, but some tenants might not realize some of the items they’re agreeing to with their signature.
Some rental companies in Athens, such as University Rentals, offer leases that hold up to 42 additional charges for anything from replacing a light bulb to fumigating the house for fleas. Discounted rents are often offered to students, as well as contingencies if pets are allowed on the premises or not.
Staff Attorney Kimberlee Francis for the Center for Student Legal Services said her office wants to make sure that its clients know what they are getting into when they sign a lease.
“Leases are almost like purchasing a house in Athens. … Our clients need to be very careful if there are things that seem suspicious or double sided,” Francis said.
Eric O’Connor, a junior studying marketing, said his experience renting this academic year with University Off Campus Housing has posed some problems.
“The maintenance workers aren’t very timely,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said he called the maintenance worker the second day of school to fix his door and cable, adding that the worker has only been to his house on Mill Street once. He would give his rental experience so far a five out of 10, he said.
“Make sure everyone is on the same page with rent and what everyone owes,” O’Connor said, adding that new renters should look at reviews for each housing agency before making a decision on where to rent.
Francis said it’s also important for students to contact the Athens City Code Enforcement Office and request a copy of the yearly report on the house they’re interested in renting.
“Landlord obligations are to comply with the ethical building housing health codes,” Francis said.
She added that these obligations include maintaining good and safe working order and condition for all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioner fixtures and appliances.
Francis said when a lease is written in a way that shifts these responsibilities to students, her staff argues the lease is void because the provision goes against what the Ohio Revised Code says.
“Why we say to look at a lease when things start shifting is you want to know who you’re entering in this business transaction with,” Francis said.
Francis said she often sees students misunderstanding what signing a joint and several lease means. Students who sign this type of lease are agreeing to all be liable for the entire house, even if one tenant fails to complete his or her duties like paying rent, she said.
“A number of tenants sign, not fully appreciating that if one of the tenants fails to move in or fails to pay, they’re going to be liable for that portion,” Francis said.
Francis said she asks clients to sign co-tenant agreements, which allow all tenants signing to distinguish who’s responsible for what.
“This only provides protection between tenant and tenant, it doesn’t change a lease. Your lease is with your landlord,” Francis said.
Francis said another problem she comes across is discounted rent incentives. One rental company that offers discounted rent is University Rentals.
“What’s scary about discounted and regular basic rent is there could be a difference for up to $5,000,” Francis said. “If you don’t pay by a certain date … the landlord can revoke the discounted rate.”
According to a University Rentals sample lease from its website, if the tenants fail to pay the discounted rent on the day that it’s due, the landlord sends a written notice that the tenants no longer qualify for the discounted rent. Instead, the tenants must pay the balance owed for the basic rent obligation.
When The Post reached out for an interview with University Rentals, the company denied the request.
Francis will also explain to student renters that if their lease mentions shifting responsibilities to the tenants that the landlord is usually in charge of.
With lease-signing season in full swing, students should make sure they know the details of their contract.
“There are certain things landlords are suppose to do such as maintain the plumbing,” Francis said. “Clients shouldn’t be maintaining the plumbing. They should keep it in working condition, they shouldn’t be shoving stuff down the sink.”
Some leases Francis reviews states how much tenants will be charged for cleaning services if the landlord deems it’s needed. Cleaning services range from stove cleaning to deep cleaning carpets.
“The client needs to be aware of those things when they sign,” Francis said.
Debbie Allen, an administrative assistant at L’Heureux Properties — which rents to about 275 students a year — said the company charges students for normal damages, not wear and tear.
“Damages would include pouring grease down a kitchen sink, popping a hole in the side of a refrigerator to turn it into a kegerator,” Allen said.
Allen said hair clogging a drain or accidental window breaks are not held liable against the tenants.
L’Heureux Properties requires its tenants to fill out a check-in sheet within 48 hours after move-in that lists all damages the maintenance crew needs to fix. Allen said sometimes she’ll receive nearly all of the check-in sheets, but then one tenant will turn the sheet in late.
“You have somebody who turned in their check-in form and suddenly we’ve got a cracked window. … We’ll repair it but it may come out of their deposit,” Allen said.
L’Heureux’s sample lease also states that if the house needs to be painted, tenants pay a $40 an hour charge.
Allen said there have been a few cases in the past 15 years where that has been applied.
“The only time we’re going to charge a tenant for painting is if they’ve defaced something,” Allen said.
One year, L’Heureux had an apartment with a giant painted martini glass on the living room wall. Allen said the next tenants hated it, so it had to be covered up, and the fees came out of the previous tenant’s deposit.
“We had a very creative soul who used a broad paintbrush dipped in red paint, loaded it, and then went around the top of the wall so it looked like blood dripping down, so we had to cover that,” Allen said.
@Fair3Julia
Athens County Sheriff’s Office receives weekly calls regarding suicide attempts
Suicide rates are down in Athens County
Editor’s Note: If you or anyone you know has suicidal thoughts, please call the Hopewell Health Center Crisis Hotline at (740) 593-3344 available 24/7 or Ohio University’s Counseling and Psychological Services’ 24-hour hotline at (740) 593-1616.
Suicide rates in Athens County were lower than usual in 2014; with four suicides recorded by the Athens County Coroner’s office, though local officials said the factors that commonly cause depression are still prevalent in the county.
Between 2010 and 2013, there were six to 11 suicides per year in Athens County, according to records from the coroner’s office, with more than half being a result of a gunshot wound.
According to the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation’s website, the national average suicide rate is 11.5 per 100,000 individuals. Athens County, however, sees an average of 11.8 suicides per 100,000 individuals.
Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith said he receives calls to his office weekly regarding suicide attempts or threats.
“We need to keep working on letting people know that there’s somewhere to turn,” Smith said.
110 calls related to suicides were made to the sheriff’s office between November of 2013 and November of 2014. Of those calls, 72 were threats, 35 were attempts and three were calls reporting a suicide had occurred.
When the Sheriff’s Office receives a call relating to a suicide attempt, Smith said deputies are dispatched to the location and try everything in their power to talk the person out of suicide.
“You have to think and do something pretty quickly – you need to be able to talk them down,” Smith said.
Sometimes, though, deputies arrive at a scene where a person might attempt “suicide by cop,” which is when a citizen tries to force the deputy to shoot him or her. Smith said suicide by cop attempts become more prevalent each year.
“I’ve experienced it, but it worked out so I didn’t have to use deadly force,” Smith said. “I’ve said (in those situations) ‘Give me two minutes and talk to them about anything they want.’ I’ve always been lucky enough to have that.”
Some experts have pointed to the concentrated poverty in Athens County as the main cause for higher suicide rates.
“The feeling of hopelessness goes along with poverty,” Chris Henry, director of crisis services at Hopewell Health Center, said. “Poverty can make it much harder for people to get treatment.”
Henry said when individuals face being in poverty, they might be prone to more impulsive tendencies, which could lead to an increase in suicides by gunshot wound.
Henry attributed the more than 50 percent rate of suicides by gunshot wound to the probable popularity of Athens residents owning guns.
According to a report compiled by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, 214 concealed carry licenses were issued to Athens County residents in 2014, and 213 were renewed.
“People who have suicidal thoughts can have moments of impulsivity,” Henry said.
According to individual death notices for those that committed suicide in 2014, the most common age group affected by suicidal thoughts in Athens County included middle-aged and young adults.
Henry said there is an assortment of reasons that could contribute to higher suicide rates in those two age groups.
“Mid-life crisis can occur,” he said, “Changes in life periods make those folks the most vulnerable.”
Athens City-County Health Commissioner James Gaskell said high suicide rates could also be a result of depression, opiate use or poverty levels.
“We have a number of psychologist and mental health facilities here in Athens to help those people,” Gaskell said.
Gaskell said if poverty levels were to be reduced, suicide prevention could be achieved on a greater scale. Additionally, he said, depression and a lack of good self-image can lead to drug usage.
There are several resources people can reach out to in Athens if they’re feeling suicidal, Henry said, including the Athens County 317 Board’s Suicide Prevention Coalition and the additional psychological counseling available to Ohio University students.
“The university does a good job of making their resources known and available,” Henry said.
He said he works closely with OU’s Dean of Students, Jenny Hall-Jones, and keeps track of the students that are considered to be “at risk.”
Ohio University offers psychological care at Hudson Health Center through Counseling and Psychological Services, which is located at the building’s third floor. After a brief 30-minute session, the center is able to determine what kind of help the individual needs.
“Some people handle pressures better than others,” Smith said. “They just need someone to talk to.”
Julia Fair - Journalist 