Collegiate Times

by Emily Davis
Associate News Editor



Members of the Oak Lane Brigade, a group that peppered campus buildings and sidewalks with graffiti last spring, have been convicted of misdemeanor property destruction.

Legba Carrefour, 23, received a 12-month jail sentence, but was only required to serve 60 days. However, having credit for jail time already served, Carrefour will only have to spend 30 days in Montgomery County Jail. He will also be on probation for two years.

The other defendants, Jenni Pfeiffer, 23; Scoot Schneider, 21; Amanda Sowers, 20; Anna Marie Calasanti-Laws, 20; and Ben DeVane, 21, were each sentenced to 200 hours of community service and one year of unsupervised probation.

All members of the group are also required to pay equal shares of the $6,179.01 it cost Virginia Tech to clean off the spray-painted messages.

In March 2002, the OLB spray-painted across campus various messages denouncing violence against and oppression of women. The graffiti was found on the morning of Tech?s annual Take Back the Night Rally.

Montgomery County Commonwealth?s Attorney Joey Showalter said he supported the anti-violence message expressed by the group but thought their methods were inappropriate.

?My office agrees with the message they were putting out, but we do not condone the way they did it,? he said.

Megan Boler, a professor of teaching and learning, said she believes that the legal action taken imposed far too harsh a penalty on the members of the OLB.

?Those sentenced were punished for political views that threaten the university, which is demonstrated by the fact that other graffiti and vandalism at Tech is not dealt with equivalently and does not incur excessive police force and penalization,? she said.

Hokie fans pulling goalposts out of the football field and Hightie Tighties doing permitted graffiti outside Lane and Shanks, go unpunished, she said.

The OLB?s purpose was also to bring attention to the lack of value its members believe Tech places on student input, Pfeiffer said.

?This is a university I feel very stifled at, as far as any type of student involvement or student voice,? she said.

Carrefour added that those in power at Tech chronically turn a deaf ear to the concerns and opinions of students.

?The university is run by a group of good ol? boys, white men with an agenda to push,? he said, ?keeping the minorities and the women in check and keeping (Tech) a place for turning out cubicle workers.?

Showalter said Carrefour?s sentence was more severe than the others because of an incident in April 2001 in which he spray-painted ?End Racism? on a stone wall bordering the Drillfield but was not prosecuted.

?Because he had already been caught once before and had a break, Tech didn?t want him to have a break again,? he said.

Carrefour said that while he understood the university?s logic, he did not agree that he should be handled differently.

However, Carrefour believes that the group?s efforts were necessary to shake up Tech?s attitude toward its students.

?I don?t regret pissing off the university, they needed to be riled up,? he said.