Halloween: a license to not be yourself, not to be your worst self

Residents of the Sellwood Stumble suffer damages and disrespect inflicted by LC students

By ELIZABETH ARAGON

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year (besides St. Patrick’s Day of course); however, this year the sobering actions of a handful of individuals brought the night to an abrupt end for many.

More specifically, I am talking about the events that transpired during the Sellwood Stumble. For those of you who were not there, I believe it is important for you to know what actions of others are being reflected onto you as a student of Lewis & Clark College.

For those of you who were there, I hope to give you a better idea of what happened that night. Contrary to many students’ sentiments who attended, it was not a “bummer of a night because the cops shut the party down.” It was a blessing that the cops came when they did and we were grateful for their help in asking people to leave.

This year, the Sellwood Stumble was hosted by three houses (our house included) and was intended to be a night for our close friends to lose themselves in costume and candy, the sort of stuff that Halloween is perfect for.  Intentions quickly became irrelevant upon the unanticipated arrival of large groups of students. While there is always the inherent risk that when deciding to host a party it will become larger than expected, this was not the central issue on Halloween. The issue was the utter lack of respect that people had for the residents’ requests to leave upon reaching capacity and the lack of concern for the well-being of the surrounding neighborhood. The actual offenses that came to light are as follows:

1. Egging of a neighbor whose baby was woken up from activity on the street

2. Scraping of a neighbor’s truck by students who had hid their bikes in a driveway

3. Throwing of a glass bottle at another neighbor

4. Destruction of neighborhood yards, including private property and decorations

5. Urination in neighbors’ driveways and outside the window of a terrified young girl’s bedroom

6. Fornication outside yet another neighbor’s window

The list does not stop here, but perhaps a picture is beginning to form. For those of you inclined to laugh at the idea of these offences, put yourselves in the shoes of these neighbors. In doing so, I assure you that there is no laughing to be had. These people’s wellbeing was threatened and their ability to provide a sense of security for their families was stripped because of the senseless actions of a handful of people. For those of you who did not participate in these events, it is still important that we hold each other accountable.

These are not the first offenses carried out by LC students this year and acts like these are starting to make a bad name for the LC community. These actions reflect poorly on all of us, within the communities we live in and as representatives of our school.

We are told that college is supposed to be some of the best times of our lives. It serves as a liaison between our childhood, where we act as followers of social rules our parents laid, and our adulthood, where we get the opportunity to participants in defining the environment around us. I think I can speak for many Lewis and Clark students in saying that the environment we want to create does not align with what happened on Halloween. .

It is my hope to be proud of the school I go to and my fellow classmates. Let Halloween night be a lesson to us all: your actions as an individual have the power to reflect on the perceived character of many.

This article is supported by Lydia Bleifuss, Isabelle Chatroux, and Analise Stein.