Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 10, 1993                   TAG: 9312100223
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEEPING TOM DIRECTS VICTIMS

College officials believe the hand-written signs were placed there by a "Peeping Tom" discouraged because he couldn't see women if they dressed in the shower stalls.

"He wanted them to be in the dressing room so he could see them through the peephole," said Franklin County Sheriff W.Q. "Quint" Overton.

Ferrum College has sworn out a trespassing warrant against a man from Rocky Mount who was seen in the general vicinity of the women's locker room Nov. 13, Overton said.

The Sheriff's Department has submitted samples of the man's handwriting to a state forensic laboratory to determine if he wrote the signs posted inside the locker room, Overton said.

The man is not being named because no other charges have been filed.

On Nov. 12, Ferrum College officials notified the Sheriff's Department that someone had created a peephole by removing a deadbolt lock from a door leading from the women's locker room to a seldom-used corridor.

Anand Dyal-Chand, vice president for student affairs, said no one was sure when the deadbolt was removed or how long the signs had been posted in the locker room.

"My suspicion is that they were not there for very long," he said.

The peeping incident has shaken the sense of security in the small, church-affiliated school nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

"We open our doors to the community and don't have a fence around the campus," Dyal-Chand said. "We feel like there has been a breach of trust."