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Stalking
Telephone Harassment:
Students, faculty and staff periodically report to police incidents of harassing or obscene telephone calls. These calls come from both on-campus and off-campus locations and originate for a variety of motives.
The university police actively investigate such complaints. Criminal and/or University charges can result with appropriate sanctions. Your awareness and cooperation is essential in combating this form of victimization.
Many people take telephone harassment lightly but this form of victimization can cause many effects such as:
Psychological
- Feelings of powerlessness
- Anger
- Fear
Physical
- Change in appetite
- Sleeping difficulties
- Stress related illness
Social
- Difficulty trusting people
- Decline in academic performance
- Interference with productivity
The accompanying information will hopefully assist you in the unwelcome event of annoying telephone calls of an obscene or harassing nature.
Commonwealth of Virginia Laws
- The laws of the State of Virginia provide that, " Any person who, without intent to converse but with intent to annoy any other person, causes any telephone not his own to ring, and any person who permits or condones the use of any telephone under his control for such purposes shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor."
- The laws of the State of Virginia further provide that, "If any person shall use obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd. Lascivious or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature or threaten any illegal or immoral act with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person over any telephone in this state, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
- State law also provides that, "If any person maliciously advises or informs another over any telephone in the State of Virginia of the death of, accident to, injury to, illness of, or disappearance of some third party, knowing the same to be false, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
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