President Steen and Vice President Hage spoke on Tuesday, April 24 to a group of students and faculty about the recent death of senior Jared Barrows and the arrest of first year Benjamin Grew.
The Fireplace Lounge filled with approximately 100 people with questions and concerns about the events that have unfolded over the past week and a half. President Steen started the talk by giving all the facts that the University had thus far on the details surrounding the death of Jared Barrows.
Early Sunday morning, PSU received a call that told them that Jared Barrows had been severely injured in a fight with fellow student Benjamin Grew and had been airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. After finding all the details they notified the appropriate people in University administration, as well as friends of Jared Barrows that his family requested be notified.
At Dartmouth Hitchcock, Barrows was diagnosed with a blood clot on the outside of his brain, which raised his Intracranial Pressure (ICP), a measure of swelling on the brain, to 29. The normal ICP is 5 to 9. His ICP rose to 34 after he arrived, so he was put into a medically induced coma and operated on, which lowered his ICP to a 19. They believed he was making progress until Friday evening when he came down with a fever. Doctors lowered his fever with ice packs, and when he returned to normal body temperature, they decided to try waking him up. He had stopped responding to stimulation, however. His ICP skyrocketed to 67 and he came down with pneumonia and kidney failure. Jared Barrows passed away Saturday morning of congested heart failure.
Benjamin Grew was arrested on Sunday, April 15 for class B felony assault and held on $100,000 bail. He made bail and returned to campus without the administration’s knowledge. The Plymouth Police Department did not release any information to the University. When they found out, they chose not to announce it for the safety of the students of Plymouth State as well as for Grew’s own safety. His probable cause hearing that was planned for Monday, April 23, was postponed because of a requested extension. The case is now under review by the attorney general.
President Steen and Vice President Hage displayed their concerns on whether information should have been released sooner.
“Our motives for not telling the PSU community sooner,” said Vice President Hage, “were for respect for his family, respect for Jared and those closest to him, respect for those the family asked us to contact, respect for the law, and respect for the integrity of the investigation.” They finally sent out a press release in honor of Jared Barrows written by President Steen on Sunday without any mention of Grew.
“It was very evident that there was misinformation that was becoming gospel,” said Hage to the small assembly in the Fireplace Lounge, which was the administration’s reason for the gathering, to dispel any rumors that had been circulating. “Our human side came out, and we made assumptions,” he said of the rapidly expanding and changing rumors.
One of the big concerns was where does the administration draw the line? One student brought up the fact that when an assault occurred last semester, the student body was notified right away and a description of the suspect was released. A lot of the students felt as though they were led to believe Barrows was going to be okay and they woke up Saturday morning to news of his death. Criticisms were directed toward the school about the recent attempts at trying to build community through the death of Jessica Hamlyn and the Virginia Tech massacre, and then keeping them in the dark about this.
“We had questions, and there was nothing,” one female student said. “The sense of community just hasn’t been felt.”
Other concerns were brought up as well. One student asked about the relationship between the University, the town, and the police. Other criticisms were directed towards the University for the delay in telling the students about the initial assault.
“I walk around late at night,” said a student, “should I feel more worried than I am? Are there assaults going on around campus that I’m not being told about?”
“I walk around late at night, too,” said President Steen. “I have never felt unsafe or uncomfortable.”
“We want to do the best we can,” said Hage, “we believe we did that.” The administration has promised to release new information on the subject when they get it unless the law says otherwise.
“This is a hard time when something like this happens,” said Hage. “We can’t forget that we lost two students in all of this. There are a lot of people hurting.”
A memorial service will be held for Jared Barrows at Plymouth State University on May 8 or May 9.