After nearly 25 years, it’s time Cal Poly owned up to mishandling the Kristin Smart case
Editor’s note: This column by Tribune columnist Sandee Hunt-Burns was originally published on Feb. 19.
I won’t rehash the saga of Kristin’s tale, as Christopher Lambert’s Your Own Backyard podcast has already done so with such eloquence.
However, we do need to remind ourselves of where this all began and why we are here today without answers to simple questions that have festered for decades.
While Flores and his posse of enablers have endured the wrath of the public over the years — as have the Keystone Cops involved in the early investigation — another key player in the story has been able to move on, relatively unscathed, with its reputation intact: Cal Poly, the scene of the crime.
The “Learn by Doing” university dropped the ball so terribly in its response to this student safety crisis that it even inspired the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act. Signed into law in 1998, this California legislation requires colleges and universities to have a written plan in place with local law enforcement to respond to violent crimes on campus. With this minimum requirement in place, no other students should be missing for a month before the investigation is turned over from campus police to local authorities.
While this is an obvious win for student safety, this came to fruition due to the advocacy efforts of the Smarts — not through an effort of goodwill shepherded by Cal Poly.
As detailed in episode 5 of Your Own Backyard, an offer of a memorial bench erected in Kristin’s honor was extended by Cal Poly to the Smart family, with the caveat that they would sign away any liability of the university in Kristin’s disappearance in return.
With strings attached like that, the family declined.
Other than a revised transcript that was amended only after a viral Facebook campaign, it has been crickets out of Cal Poly.
No number of memorial benches or red handprints will ever bring Kristin back, stitch together the broken souls of the Smarts, or erase the decades of collective trauma our community has endured as a result of this horror. The scars will forever remain a painful reminder of this harrowing loss that time simply has not healed.
However, we can move forward and soothe the wound with a healthy dose of responsibility laced with accountability. In a #MeToo era, where violence and sexual assault against women can no longer be swept under the rug for the sake of image, can Cal Poly really continue to not address what happened on their campus?
How long will San Luis Obispo tolerate inaction on an issue so important by an entity that wields so much influence over not just the city, but also our region as a whole?
Precedent exists, as the University of Utah has demonstrated in accepting responsibility for the missteps following the murder of Lauren McCluskey, a student who was killed by an ex-boyfriend after repeated attempts to enlist the university’s assistance to keep her safe went unanswered. “The university acknowledges and deeply regrets that it did not handle Lauren’s case as it should have ... at the time, its employees failed to fully understand and respond appropriately to Lauren’s situation,” University of Utah President Ruth V. Watkins said.
The University of Utah didn’t kill Lauren, just like Cal Poly didn’t kill Kristin.
Fault is not what is in question here. Responsibility is. Without the original failings of Cal Poly campus police that allowed both precious time and evidence to slip away, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be here decades later with nothing but questions and missed opportunities.
When will Cal Poly take responsibility for ignoring the pleas of Kristin’s dorm mates who begged campus police to take her disappearance seriously? Where is the apology for treating a missing teenager with the same urgency as a lost skateboard?
Will Cal Poly ever acknowledge allowing Flores’ dorm room to be cleaned top to bottom, despite him being the only suspect? What specifically, other than minimum state requirements, has Cal Poly taken from this nightmare to ensure nothing like this ever happens again?
Where is Cal Poly when Warriors for Kristin hold rallies and memorials that turn out hundreds of supporters? Why hasn’t Cal Poly publicly become a part of our community’s attempt to heal?
As we close in on the 25th anniversary of Kristin’s disappearance, an opportunity again presents itself for Cal Poly to step up and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our community and honor their fallen Mustang in a way they weren’t able to in 1996.
“... we have failed Lauren and her family,” continued Watkins of the University of Utah. “If these employees had more complete training and protocols to guide their responses, the university believes they would have been better equipped to protect Lauren.”
For the “Learn by Doing” university, doing the right thing now for Kristin and our community is a great place to start.
Sandee Hunt-Burns is a millennial mom and digital storyteller, sharing musings through the mish-mashed lens of a moderate progressive living, working and playing on the Central Coast.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 3:37 PM.