The Castleton Hookups page on Facebook has a lot of likes, 851 to be exact. The page is so infamous that even non-Castleton students have clicked the “like” button to view the controversial content.
While many former and current students leave comments about how funny they find the anecdotes about the hookups and who is hot or not around campus, a new Facebook page was created to tell the stories about the possible aftermath of those hookups.
It is called the Castleton Survivors page, a place where anyone can anonymously send in their stories and talk about their experiences including sexual assault, rape and other tragedies people have overcome or “survived.”
“It’s kind of that escape that people want,” said CSC sophomore Emma Faucher.
The Facebook page is run by Faucher, though she stressed she has no way to tell who sends in the stories. All she gets is a message in her inbox saying the date and time it was posted and sent in.
She added that when she reads them she thinks, “I wish I knew who this was. I want to give them a hug.”
She does not change anything about the stories, even grammatical or spelling errors, so they are posted the way the writer originally sent it in.
The page was thought of by Faucher, fellow student Shaina Lussier and Professor Linda Olson, who is also in charge of Peer Advocates for Change.
All three were rather quick to point out the page is not run by, helped, or even associated with either PAC or the CHANGE initiative; though in the info section it mentions Amy Bremel’s office and the Wellness Center as places where people can go for support or counseling.
“To me the hookup page is a way of humiliating people,” said Olson.
Olson was looking for a place where victims could share their stories with a support network if they needed it.
Lussier had a similar goal of making a place for support, which is where the idea for the page stemmed from.
“You see these people standing by you and it’s comforting … it lets you know you’re not alone, because you know that there are other stories out there,” Lussier said.
While there are only 10 stories posted on the page right now, both Lussier and Faucher hope that by getting the word out around campus, students might share their stories and encourage others to do the same.
Faucher envisions a lot of great things for the page, one of which is that it goes on after she leaves Castleton.
“I knew Sam Barrale last year and she was very involved in PAC and she said to me ‘Take over PAC for me, do what I do,’ so I’m hoping there will be a freshmen my senior year that kind of reminds me of myself and I can pass the page on, just cause I wouldn’t want the page to stop,” Faucher said