January 22, 2024. This was probably just another day to you.
If you don’t remember this day, we had just started the semester a few weeks ago and were still getting settled into our schedules. If you do remember this day, it’s because of the monstrous ice storm that coated campus in sheets of ice. IWU decided to keep classes in session, so I went out and braved the ice. I checked all three exits of my dorm to find that none of the sidewalks were clear. Physical Plant is expected to clear the walkways or salt the icy areas. I didn’t want to miss class and figured if I went slowly and carefully, I would be okay. Other students did the same, creating human chains to stay safe. Eventually it was okay, and I made it to class and even to lunch in Dugout afterward.
However, I was still nervous, so I went to Campus Safety to hopefully have someone escort me safely back to my dorm. I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. It essentially means my bones are more easily fractured than an ordinary person’s. I explicitly told the officers and receptionist that if I fell I would break something. A security officer came out, and offered to drive me back, but expected me to get from the building to the car (which was about ten feet away) on a sloped sidewalk., It had not even been attempted to be cleared. I walked slowly and cautiously, with no help or assistance from the security officer.
Photo: Brooke Savoie
But I lost my footing and landed heavily on my right side.
I heard the crack, and I knew something was broken, along with my 7-year streak of not breaking bones. I went into shock straight away and didn’t feel the ice I had landed on. The campus security officer called 911 for me. I genuinely laughed at how ridiculous it was that I tried to find a safe escort and still fell in the end. When the paramedics arrived, my biggest fear was that they were going to slip and drop me from the board they transported me on.
Due to the circumstances of my injury, I was forced to take medical leave.While I am now mostly healed, I still struggle from the effects of a break that intense. My semester was lost, I went through excruciating pain, and an arduous healing process. This all could’ve been avoided, either by canceling classes (we even have easy virtual options now), clearing the sidewalks, or at the very least being offered actual assistance by the campus safety officer.
I feel that the safety of disabled students like me during potentially unsafe weather is not important to the university, and this needs to be improved to avoid situations like mine.