JESSICA MEDITZ
Editor in Chief
October is upon us and so are the antics.
Within the past couple of weeks, there have been multiple reports of Fredonia students encountering a masked individual at nighttime.
The individual is said to have stopped people in their tracks, interrupting their walks in the Village of Fredonia and even on campus.
A post that went quasi-viral in Fredonia’s campus-community realm of Facebook is from Leif Isaacson, a senior, where he described the unusual experience.
At around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, a figure dressed in black and wearing a kabuki mask approached Isaacson on Temple St.
“He stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk and just stared at me… made me approach him and walk around him… and was completely silent,” he wrote.
“I 100 percent expected him to turn around and bash me as soon as I passed, so I made sure to quicken my pace and put as much distance between us as possible. Luckily, he kept walking.”
While some have overlooked the incident as a Halloween prank gone overboard, encounters similar to that of Isaacson’s have occurred for longer in Fredonia.
In early September, two seniors at Fredonia, Bob Johnston and Nick Dohre, had an encounter with a suspicious individual when leaving McEwen Hall at around 10:30 p.m.
They claim to have seen a figure in a white cloak with black hair covering its head and most of its face, almost depicting a deranged Jesus Christ.
“[He was] standing right by the garbage sculpture,” said Johnston.
“He watched us pass and Nick asked if he needed help, and he didn’t respond. He had moved over to the corner of McEwen near Fenton and I assume he was staring into the window on the first floor of the library’s side building.”
After that, they watched him walk between Fenton and Houghton Halls and eventually followed.
“We went through, looked around and couldn’t see him anywhere when we heard rustling in the bushes on the corner of that one-way driveway in front of Fenton,” he said.
Immediately following, the two called campus security and filed a report.
Coincidentally, another part of Isaacson’s Facebook post said that the person he saw that night “matched the description of a guy who’s been hanging around campus asking young women if they’d like to come with him to learn more about God.”
The individual with the “Christlike” appearance seen by Johnston and Dohre and the similarity in nature of Isaacson’s experience might lead people to believe that it is the same person on each account, or the accounts were related in some way.
On the night of Oct. 11, the person appeared again to other students.
Hailey Heubach, a freshman, saw a black hood draping over the brick wall outside of Kasling Hall through the common room window.
“I didn’t think anything of it because I figured it was someone that didn’t live in our hall waiting for a friend to come out,” she said.
A few minutes later, the figure began to walk away. Heubach checked outside the window again to see them staring right at her through the window, wearing the same kabuki mask as described by Isaacson.
“I don’t know what he could have been doing. Taking pictures or just stalking us?”
Another social media post circulated social media, claiming that a “suspicious looking man” had been seen beckoning people over to his car.
All of the puzzle pieces coming together have left a lot of students feeling uncomfortable and concerned for their safety.
“I think people should be concerned first and foremost because this person matched the description of human traffickers,” said Isaacson.
“But even if this person was just a stupid kid trying to play a prank on people, it’s setting up the community to get complacent with menacing people.”
An email from Marketing and Communications was sent out on behalf of Brent Isaacson of University Police to Fredonia’s campus on Oct. 14.
The email said that University Police have identified the individual, and that they are not a student or employee of SUNY Fredonia.
The person was notified that if they return to campus, they could face charges.
All Fredonia students are encouraged to download the RAVE Guardian app, which acts as a portable blue light phone.
If a student encounters a potentially dangerous situation, they should dial 911.