A week after a student was banned from campus for cyber stalking, at least three victims are still dealing with the aftermath of the attacks.
Preston Stock, 18, freshman from Waggaman and staff writer for The Nicholls Worth, posed as an 18-year-old female by the name of Jamie Jackson on Facebook. He used the Facebook account to harass and threaten multiple people, sending one a personal death threat.
Brian Heck, associate professor of mathematics, was Stock’s first known target. After receiving a friendly message from Stock, who posed as Jackson, in November, the messages took a quick turn from sexually explicit harassing messages to death threats towards his students.
Heck said that he was never physically threatened by Stock, but decided to involve the police when he got a message saying one of his students would die every week and a half that Heck did not give Stock the information that he asked for. To this date, Heck doesn’t know what information Stock wanted. He was never able to reply to Stock’s messages.
Stock’s next known target was Katherine Conner, associate professor of English. Stock sent messages to Conner about the way she looked and threatened to get her fired. One of the messages stated, “wow, total bitch ya know, yea YOU! Im gonna get you fired from my school. whore. Bet your hair coluor is fake.” Conner felt threatened when she received the message, “i can keep on adding you. i found out where you live kathy.” Stock stated “im gonna go kill myself because you wont ever add me kathy.”
Conner printed out the messages and turned them in to the head of the English department, who then turned them into Eugene Dial, vice president for Student Affairs.
Conner knew that whoever was sending the messages was hiding under a fake name but thought it was a girl who possibly failed a class that she taught.
Julie Jacobs, freshman from Paulina, was Stock’s third known target. Jacobs did not know Stock until he introduced himself as a fellow victim of Jackson’s harassing messages. Not realizing that Stock was Jackson, she confided in him and believed they were victims. Stock told Jacobs, “One of his friend’s dads was a lawyer, and another friend’s dad was a cop. They were both helping to build a case.”
Jacobs then received a death threat from Stock. Jacobs said that Stock, posing as Jackson, said that on April 7 at 4 p.m., “she was going to use a knife and had been saying that she was going to come see me about two weeks before but had been deciding which knife to cut me with.”
Stock was questioned by University Police and admitted to threatening to stab Jacobs. Stock was banned from campus last Thursday until the disciplinary hearing next Tuesday.
When it was revealed that Stock was posing as Jackson, all three victims were surprised. Conner said, “It was the last person I would have thought.”
The victims also said that Stock’s behavior did not match the messages.
“He spoke and wrote in two different languages,” Jacobs said. Most of Jackson’s messages were written with improper spelling, grammar and punctuation, whereas Stock had proper writing experience.
Stock completed a story on Heck and Conner for The Nicholls Worth. Both were disturbed that he chose to do stories on them. Stock also asked Jacobs if he could do a student profile on her, which would have run in next week’s paper.
Heck searched out Conner after learning that she was also affected. They had not previously met before the incident but felt a connection after sharing their experiences.
Conner said that it made her feel better to know there were others also affected; however, none of the victims knew why they were the chosen targets.
“No one expects for them to be attacked by someone who isn’t real,” Jacobs said. Heck thought his laid back and casual personality was to blame.
Heck’s biggest fear now is seeing Stock. Heck becomes nervous when he’s approached by students that he does not know.
“Don’t engage in a person who is harassing you. You can also set your Facebook settings to where non-friends can’t message you,” Heck said.
Conner said that she couldn’t imagine what students have to deal with when they are cyber bullied or stalked. Conner does not want this situation to happen to anyone else. “People who are doing the bullying online need to know that they will get caught,” Connor said.
“You shouldn’t trust everything on the Internet. If someone is threatened, the best thing to do is contact the authorities,” Jacobs said.
Heck summed everything up by saying, “It’s been a nightmare.”
If anyone has been a victim of bullying, stalking or any other form of harassment either online or through text message they should notify University Police immediately.
