By: Mason Mattu, News Writer
Content warning: details of harassment, and racist and sexist language.
The safety of SFU students is being questioned after an incident of verbal harassment against an SFU student occurred on the Burnaby Campus on November 24, 2024. Following this incident, she posted her experience on Reddit to r/simonfraser. The Peak reached out to learn more about her experience and opinion on campus safety. Jane’s name has been changed to protect her identity.
At 5:00 p.m. on a Sunday night, Jane took a break from studying and went to order food from a restaurant at UniverCity. While walking from the Student Union Building, she encountered a group of boys “smoking marijuana and vaping” in the 3000 level of the academic quadrangle (AQ). Upon seeing Jane, the group of teenagers began to hurl racist remarks and sexist slurs at her, going as far as to say they could take her “to the stairwell and fuck [her] up so easy” and that “nobody would even know what would happen” to her.
Jane then said she ran from the group of boys and called security near the education building entrance of the AQ. “When I called the security guards, I felt there was no urgency to actually catch these boys. They were walking to these boys as they were running away,” she said. The group of teenagers then started “running around campus” as Jane accompanied security. When Jane spotted one of the boys, a security guard jogged toward him. Jane said she then stood alone for “seven or eight minutes,” when she called campus security again. She wanted to know if she could leave campus and how the boys would be dealt with. Jane felt “there was no sense of communication” between herself and security. She also expressed her disapproval of the school’s Safe Walk service as she stated security escorted her to the UniverCity area, where they had also escorted the teenagers off campus.
“One way or another, the reason why I wanted to share this was so it could spark discussion about the way that SFU handled this.” — Jane, SFU Student
This incident is not the first safety violation arising on campus allegedly involving the same group of teenagers. In March, an SFU student was bear-sprayed on the Burnaby campus. According to an interview with City News Vancouver, the student intervened to stop the harassment of a custodian by a group of teenagers. He was then shoved and bear-sprayed by them. This student stated that when he reached out to SFU, “they did not provide any support or information regarding how they would prevent similar instances from happening in the future.” There were also reports of police responding to a pepper spray incident in late March, but The Peak wasn’t able to confirm the details of the incident, and whether or not it was separate from the bear spray incident. Many anonymous Reddit users and an anonymous City News interviewee suspect these teenagers are linked to several other incidents throughout 2024 involving violent threats, racial slurs, and shooting BB guns.
Jane also added that a security guard told her the group of teenagers she encountered had “12 to 14” incidents involving campus security in the past. Both Jane’s original Reddit post and the post about the bear mace pictured the suspects. The photos were forwarded to the Burnaby RCMP by Reddit users. Reddit users reacting to the bear mace incident were able to find the social media handles and full names of the alleged suspects. The Youth Criminal Justice Act makes it illegal to publish the identity of minors, including publishing their names on social media.
Jane said that when she filed a report with the Burnaby RCMP, they forced her to delete the pictures of the teenagers online. She said she felt “very much pressured into it because of the boys being minors.” The police proceeded to ask her to “give the boys an apology and sit down with their parents” for posting a photo of them. After Jane refused to do so, the case was closed with the Burnaby RCMP. The Peak reached out to the RCMP Burnaby district for more information but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.
In a statement to The Peak, SFU stated that the “campus public safety team continues to offer support to those impacted by these incidents and is working with the Burnaby RCMP to aid police in all avenues of their investigation.” The Peak also reached out to SFU security for a statement but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.
“Perhaps other women [or people] could have similar stories to share about this,” said Jane, when asked what prompted her to share her story. “One way or another, the reason why I wanted to share this was so it could spark discussion about the way that SFU handled this,” she continued.
Jane and another Reddit user alleged that only four guards work the Burnaby campus per shift. The Reddit user said that two guards are stationed at specific areas on campus, while two other guards conduct campus-wide patrols. The user said in their conversation with security, they learned that security staff believe it is unreasonable to only have two guards on campus-wide patrols to respond to emergencies. Jane added there were only two patrol security guards on campus the night of her harassment. The Peak was unable to verify the number of campus security working per shift, as SFU security did not respond by the publication deadline.
