La View.

Students arrested for literary terrorism on campus



Hon. Felix Frankfurter
Staff Writer

Public Safety and the SDPD apprehended three female USD students last Thursday evening around 7:30 p.m. for posting poetry in a manner that disrupts the "aesthetic quality of the campus" according to C. Ensor, a nighttime Public Safety officer. Officials have released the names of the students, claiming their involvement in the vandalism is a form of literary terrorism.

Two seniors, Kate Sullivan and Molly Tustison, as well as freshman Natalie Earnheart were taken into custody after a student reported seeing them stalking around campus with cans of spray paint.

As Public Safety officers tracked down the girls near the Aromas lawn, they immediately called for backup from SDPD since the girls were armed with stacks of poems and had begun to tag the lawn with "Anecdote of a Jar," by Wallace Stevens, according to a report released by Public Safety on Monday.

When Public Safety tried to corner the students, Sullivan allegedly ran toward Colachis Fountain and, while stripping off clothes, screamed "I am a Promiscuous Daughter" repeatedly.

Tustison succumbed most easily and reportedly muttered something about finding "a place for poplars" and "words on skin" while being walked to the Public Safety vehicle.
Earnhart threw her stack of poems in the officers’ faces and shouted, "Thou villainous hell-hated giglets!"

Later that evening, AS President Rhett Buttle was found bound and gagged and told officials, "The girls broke into my office, tied me up and threatened to take away my gold name tag if I didn’t give them access to the USD student listserve."

Apparently these vandals had planned to send poems by William Blake, Walt Whitman and T.S. Eliot to each and every student at USD.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that all three young women have pledged allegiance to The Promiscuous Daughters, an underground writing club on campus that allegedly meets in the Cropper Writing Center.

Public Safety raided the small room in Founders and found stacks of poems by established poets and members of the club.

Plans for further guerilla action were uncovered on the book shelves F190 which included posting poems on the newly acquired electronic signs, tagging lawns and sidewalks with sonnets, and replacing table tents with excerpts from Tennyson’s "In Memoriam."

The students have been released from custody, but await trial in front of school officials for "vandalizing school property and attempts to enrich the minds of students."

Dr. Peter Kanelos, Professor of English, was unavaible for comment last Friday due to temporary incarceration for similar charges. However, upon his arraignment, he was contacted and responded to the incident saying, "I'm in full support of the girls' action, there's just one thing that puzzles me: Stevens? Why Stevens?"

The probable punishment looks to be an extra full semester at USD for each student—on their own dime—whereby each must take 15 units of business credit.