Homophobic abuse at Goldsmiths
October 7th, 2009 | Author: Joe Rennison
Homophobic comments and death threats against a Sabbatical Officer on a website set up by Goldsmiths students has sparked an external investigation.
The website, launched in March 2009, was part of a larger plot to have Jennifer Jones, Goldsmiths SU Campaigns and Communications Officer, dismissed by encouraging the submission of student complaints.
However, complaints posted on the website soon descended into abuse. One anonymous comment posted on the website said: “burn Jennifer jones! dyke bitch”.
An internal Students’ Union investigation, which looked into the malicious content of the website, concluded that it was part of, “a systematic and sustained form of victimisation.”
The website was created in the name of ‘davefield3’. According to the internal investigation this account was an alias operated by Goldsmiths Students, namely, James Bulley, Oliver Conway and Peter Moore.
‘davefield3’ repeatedly posted on the website asking guest’s comments to “remain clean”. One post read: “Guys, WE LOVE the constructive stories, & peoples experiences, but please!!; can we keep the abuse to a nil.”
However, in correspondence with Oliver Conway, Peter Moore said: “I can’t wait till the abuse starts coming in.”
Similarly, in a message to Jess Tratt, former Goldsmiths SU President, Moore said: “shame we can’t just set fire to her like the old days.”
Another, earlier post from davefield3 read: “I will delete anymore abuse that pop’s up.. agreeing with it or not lol.”
Jesse Fajemisin, current Goldsmiths SU President and Bindiya Patel, SU Welfare officer, were included in Facebook ‘threads’ where complaints about Jen Jones and plans to remove her from her position, including the setting up of the website, were discussed.
During the internal investigation both Fajemisin and Patel were asked if they had information about the identity of those behind the website. Patel initially denied knowledge of the website but later came forward. Fajemisin, who was included in the facebook threads that website, but did not comment, and did not come forward.
Graham Gaskell, Goldsmiths SU Chief Executive, was aware of the complaints being submitted against Jones and according to the internal investigation, “took this opportunity to submit his own complaint.”
When Jen Jones approached college management about the website and her “right not to be victimised” she was told by Hugh Jones, Goldsmiths College Registrar and Secretary: “There really is nothing which I can directly do about this, as the Students’ Union is constitutionally separate from the College, and employment matters are within the Students’ Union’s own remit. You will need to take this up with Jesse or Graham.”
Jen Jones said: “I was unable to take this up with Jesse or Graham because they were both subject to investigation themselves. It’s like the bank manager asking the robber to help solve the crime.”
Jones claims she asked Goldsmiths College Management to organise an external investigation, specifically to address the website. She further claims that they refused to do this.
Daf Adley, NUS LGBT Officer, said: “We were made aware of the hate website that was set up against Jennifer Jones earlier this year and supported her request for a full investigation to be carried out by Goldsmith Students’ Union.”
Goldsmiths Senior Management have since arranged an external investigation to address the validity of complaints submitted against Jones. This external investigation is ongoing.
Jones said: “This ‘external’ investigation does take the website into account but is largely about Peter, Oliver and James claiming I’m bullying them.”
Hugh Jones said, in an e-mail to Jones: “Within the terms of reference which we have set out, we are asking for a report ‘on the substance of the complaints and the context in which they were made’. This includes the website.”
When approached by London Student, a spokesperson from Goldsmiths said: ““Whilst the investigation is taking place we are unable to make any comment on the details of the situation.”
Additionally, Oliver Conway, Graham Gaskell and Bindiya Patel declined to comment until the external investigation is complete.
Peter Moore declined to comment on his involvement with the website. However, he did claim the internal investigation was biased due to it being, “run by close friends of Jennifer Jones.”
This internal investigation was run by a panel consisting of two Student Trustees and the SU Services and activities officer. Stone King Sewell Solicitors, specialists in Charity and Employment Law, gave advice on how to conduct the investigation.
The internal investigation concluded: “By encouraging the victimisation of Jennifer, the individuals involved have contributed to an atmosphere in the Union and around college in which condemnation of homophobia is conditional.”
Daf Adley added: “No LGBT student or student officer deserves to be subjected to discrimination, abuse or threats, be this in the lecture theatre, accommodation, on campus, or online. The NUS LGBT Campaign will continue to support the victims of homophobia and demand appropriate actions are taken against perpetrators of discrimination.”
15 Responses to “Homophobic abuse at Goldsmiths”
Leave a Reply
Are the EDL just misunderstood?
- No, they're dangerous and have to be stopped. (72%)
- Yes. The media have just blown their true motivations out of proportion. (28%)
Loading ...
“Peter Moore declined to comment on his involvement with the website. However, he did claim the internal investigation was biased due to it being, “run by close friends of Jennifer Jones.””
This was a source of considerable debate at the meeting to oppose homophobia at Goldsmiths Student Union on October 8th, and to people who do not know the story it was very confusing. What was clear is that there is an extraordinary level of factionalism and croneyism, which is alienating to previously uninvolved students. Personally I feel very strongly about homophobic and misogynist abuse, but I felt unable to have any impact on the ‘discussion’ as everyone in the know had their agendas and were not especially interested in hearing anyone else’s contributions.
Out of an initial group of at least 100, only 27 stuck it out to the bitter end and voted. These were markedly Jones’ friends.
Actually, those who stuck it out to the end included a number of new people and first years. Don’t know what you think we “voted” on – nothing of the sort happened – we instead thrashed out a programme of combating homophobia at Goldsmiths.
The only “agenda” I and many others had was to make sure such homophobic abuse is not tolerated or swept under the carpet like it so much is……
Hilarious! God bless the internet. Nothing like it for overblown and pointless drama.
I’m disgusted this story is on the front page of the London Student website, it contains many inaccuracies and exaggerations, and is scandalously libellous. This is just another extension of the agenda that Caroline talked about in her post. Very strange that Goldsmiths is being highlighted, for whatever reason, as a hot-bed of homophobia. Hilariously one sided story.
Mike-
It’s telling that you can’t actually cite any “inaccuracies” or “exaggerations”.
If it is “scandalously libellous” why is London Student not being sued??!
You are just the kind of person who doesn’t take homophobia as seriously as it should be taken. It’s deeply insulting for you to say you are “disgusted” by a report of homophobic abuse. You should be disgusted by the abuse itself.
WHy are you pretending that’s it’s ‘strange’ and why do you say “for whatever reason”? I have seen with my eyes many evidence of teh abuse that was online and that has been graffittid around college
I shan’t go through the entire article, which I easily could. But the article fails to mention key pieces of information; how the message information was obtained, the sexual orientation of some of the so called homophobes, the very suspicious nature of the death threats on the polling page. I merely left my comment in the hope that people reading this page will do so with the high level of scepticism it deserves. I’m not here to have a debate about it, my comment was for people who haven’t made up their minds, you clearly already have Erica.
“why is London Student not being sued??!” I’m sure the accused have better things to do than spend thousands on a law suit when the problem is already being dealt with by the SU. Be serious.
Not having seen the comments made on the website, the following is just an opinion. I’ve known Jen Jones for several years and she works exceptionally hard for the SU and is very passionate about the causes that she works for. She is also very stubborn and exceptionally rude. Goldsmiths has always been a clique-y place, and there are different groups that dominate topics. It seems that this has been taken out of context – victimisation is wrong, death threats are wrong, but the odd comment about Jen’s sexuality does not make this a sustained homophobic attack. From the outside, this sounds a bit like crying wolf and publicly naming and shaming people who had contact with the website does seem close to defamation.
I was sent an email by one of the people who had chaired the meeting saying that 27 people voted – apparently on action. Yes of course there were newcomers and first years there – I was one of them, but did not have the stamina to stick it out to the end when I could see that there was little point.
I wasn’t allowed to post the reply I wanted, shocker.
How long do comments take to moderate?
As Goldsmith alumni, I am sickened to see that the “victims” of this so called case are still poisoning my union. More a chance to take advantage of a situation and destroy good decent peoples good names. To say the “victim” mentioned is being bullied is ludicrous. I in no way condone homophobic abuse & don’t doubt some idiots got involved and threw offensive ignorant abuse around but the inaccuracies and slanderous nature of this report are foul and ironic. What a joke. Jenifer Jones is the bully.
I hope Goldsmiths has an antidote to the viscious nature of this “victim”.
People have always told me that the London Student was an awful, poorly researched and factually inaccurate rag but this beggars belief!
Jennifer Jones has been bullying students at Goldsmiths for a number of years. There is an undeniable base of evidence that backs that up.
The fact that the current editor of the London Student is friends with her should not mean that articles riddled with lies like this can be printed (I’m a little suprised no-one has brought that fact up).
Maybe you ought to make mention of the fact that the ‘independent investigation’ was run by Sian Lapwood, Jones’ housemate and close friend! The ‘facts’ you print that were obtained by it are completely inaccurate, because (and you would know this if you had actually looked into it properly) no-one attended it or gave it the time of day as a result of its obvious bias.
Also worth mentioning would be the results of the recent Salter investigation into these issues by Goldsmiths College. These were completely damning on both Jones and the GSU for her behaviour and the way in which GSU dealt with the numerous complaints from students about her behaviour.
Absolutely appalling journalism.
Joe Rennison – the decent thing for you to do would be to issue an apology to all that have been smeared by your insinuations and retract this article from the London Student website.
http://goldsmithsstudents.org/jennifer-jones-resigns-as-campaigns-and-communications-officer
very useful website thank you
As we were checking out the new Ford Start concept at the Beijing Motor Show, we ran into the head of Ford’s advanced studio in California, Freeman Thomas, and the mini car’s lead exterior designer, Jeff Nield. According to Nield, he wanted to create a vehicle that retained elements of Ford’s “Kinetic Design” language while at the same time create something more subdued, able to stand apart from the noise surrounding the show. Thus the Start has a cleaner simpler shape that’s slightly more serious than past concepts. Nield mentioned the Mini and how it’s always had a cute, happy demeanor about it. He wanted to create something different – a thing of beauty injected with very natural, organic elements.