As most of us get ready to leave high school and start our new lives in college we don’t take into consideration what could happen to us. All that is in our minds is that we are finally adults, we begin to feel a sense of freedom and independence.

To make sure this community understands the importance of the reality of anything happening to them they should be aware of the undergoing issues around them.

As a young woman apart of this community Lauren McCluskey was experiencing her new life, her new freedom and independence which came to a short sad end due to a violent domestic relationship with Melvin Rowland.

McCluskey and Rowland had been dating for a very short time when McCluskey realized that Rowland had lied about his identity. He told her he was 26, his name was shaun and had no criminal history,  in reality he was 37, had many charges as a sex offender and his name was Melvin Rowland.

McCluskey’s family and close friends tried to contact police and campus police multiple times after she tried to leave Rowland and he kept harassing and threatening her, but they did nothing to handle the matter due to the fact that Lauren herself didn’t contact anyone and it was only threats of violence.

On October 22, 2018, while walking to her car with her mother on the phone after an evening class Lauren was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend Rowland.

This raises a lot of questions: why didn’t the police follow through when they were contacted ten times before the murder? Does college campus security not do anything for the students? Is this the only time the police have ignored a domestic violence issue and it ends up being fatal? As a community of young adults leading our way into college, we should think about these issues and worry if we are really safe.

An investigation was done about the worries of females involved in domestic violence issues, the faculty and students of NHS reacted passionately to this crime and its underlying social issues

Mr. Justin Zeigler, NHS Dream Director,  believes of women in America that “their wants, needs, concerns and desires and fears, are not often taken seriously in our world.”

In this case, McCluskey was ignored and pushed to the side because when her friends and family contacted the police, regardless of the situation only being a violent threat,  shouldn’t the police follow through with the report? In this case, it lead to much more than a threat.

Nicholas ,K a student of Naugatuck High school, when asked if police should follow through with domestic issues regardless of who contacted the polic,e said, “It’s important to seek the whole problem through.”

“Some people are too scared to leave domestic situations,” responded JayLynn C.

If the police don’t follow through should the female have to be responsible? We asked a male teacher who wants to remain nameless and he answered: “No that is the responsibility of the police to protect us, whether if its child protective services, that’s what they are there for.”

Throughout this investigation, we had some tricky answers that made some valid points like when asked if the police policies regarding overstepping should be removed our media center worker Ms.Barbara Grella said, “No, they are there to do their job and should do it.”

This investigation shows that young females have a lot to stress in reality, going into college everyone should keep in mind that campus police and the police may not take you seriously and always be cautious of the people you meet.