Sudden death shakes Hampshire College
By Dan O'Brien, Collegian Staff
January 31, 2006 (Spring 2006 semester's "Back to School Issue")
Several students who reside at the Prescott House at Hampshire College woke up on the morning of Dec. 16, 2005 to find police cars, yellow caution tape and authorities wheeling a body bag outside their dormitory.
The sight initially sent shock waves through the campus. Nobody knew what had happened.
"The campus didn't really tell us anything," said a Prescott resident who asked not to be named. "I just saw police and this caution tape around my building and didn't know what happened."
Worried students turned to the DailyJolt.com, a Web site with message boards for college students. Inside Hampshire's section of the Web site, over 35 messages were posted between Dec. 16 and Dec. 18 about the incident. Most of the messages were from students asking others what had happened.
On the afternoon of Dec. 18, Hampshire College Dean Michael D. Ford released a campus-wide email, which read, in part, "It is my sad duty to inform students, faculty and staff of the death of Hampshire student Samantha Sandler. Samantha's family has been notified, and I know that you join me in extending our deepest sympathy...We have no details to share at this time, but will make appropriate information available as we are able."
Sandler, 23, from Bloomfield, Conn., was found in her bed unresponsive by her boyfriend on the morning of Dec. 16, according to her roommate, Mike Bushnell, a second-year student.
No official cause of death will be released until a medical examiner concludes an investigation.
Sandler was described by Bushnell as "open-minded" and having a "wild" personality.
"I think most of us are silent...but still reflecting," he said of Sandler's death.
Bushnell says that while coping with Sandler's death is difficult, her passing inspired him and his friends - many of whom are writers and musicians - to turn their grief into something positive.
"Her passing is a release of energy we can harness and turn into [something creative]," he said.
Sandler's name was found in the Northampton District Court log from last summer when she faced charges related to possession of a class B substance (cocaine) and obtaining a hypodermic needle without a license. She was found guilty of the charges and her case was continued without a finding for one year. Sandler was ordered to continue counseling and pay fines.
Since the email was distributed, few details have been released by Amherst police or Hampshire surrounding the death.
Several messages from students on the Daily Jolt message board complained that Hampshire is usually not forthcoming with information to its students.
"I don't trust the college to tell us jack [expletive]. Remember how they didn't tell us about that assault in Greenwich?" one anonymous student posted, referring to an Oct. 6, 2005 incident at the Greenwich dormitory on campus.
In that case, a 23-year-old man from New Jersey entered the room of his ex-boyfriend while he was asleep. He allegedly strangled the victim with a nylon cord and hit him in the head with a flashlight. The suspect, Salvador Perez, has since pleaded innocent to a number of charges, including kidnapping causing serious bodily injury.
University of Massachusetts officials responded in a similar way as Hampshire officials did after one of its students, Sharon Kelley, 20, of Woburn, suddenly died on Oct. 15, 2005. Three days later, Associate Vice Chancellor Jo-Anne Vanin released an all-campus email, informing students of the death. Authorities are still awaiting a medical examiner's report to rule Kelley's official cause of death.
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