Harassment and Murder at Yale?

For several days now, we have been intrigued with the story out of New Haven, Connecticut, about the death of Annie Le, the Yale graduate student who went missing a couple of days before she was to be married. Her body has now been found, and authorities have confirmed that she was murdered.

According to the New Haven Independent, police say that they aren’t focusing their attention on any Yale students but rather on a lab technician who worked with Ms. Le. Although not confirmed by law enforcement officials yet, the lab technician allegedly had an unrequited romantic interest in Ms. Le.

Yale undoubtedly has a harassment policy that applies to students, faculty, administrators, and other employees. The policy undoubtedly says that anyone being harassed should report it to human resources or some other authorized personnel. We don’t know yet whether Ms. Le had complained about the lab technician’s advances. We don’t know whether anyone in authority at Yale looked into the matter if she did complain.

We do know this may be a worse case scenario where unrequited love causes harassment that turns deadly. Whatever the situation turns out to be at Yale, harassment complaints must be investigated, and appropriate action must be taken. A harassment investigation can’t become a perfunctory procedure. It must be a dead serious process.