A petition calling upon WSU administration to remove a level three sex offender from the Pullman campus has received over 1,400 signatures.

A school-wide email informing students of 52-year-old Joel Lawson’s attendance on the Pullman campus was sent out Friday afternoon. Lawson was convicted with rape of a child in the first degree in 1997, and released in 2015. 

Junior computer science major Claire Monson created the petition a few hours after receiving the email. 

“I think it’s really, really important that we discuss why this was ever allowed and why the university took so long to tell the students,” Monson said.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs classifies offenders as level three “if their risk assessment and other factors indicate they are a high risk to sexually reoffend within the community at large.”

According to the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, states must “obtain information concerning registrants’ enrollment or employment at institutions of higher education” and “provide this information to campus police departments.” The CSCPA requires the availability of information identifying a registered sex offender’s history to campus communities. 

Monson said the petition has over 6,000 views. She has received 20 testimonials from people who have signed it, some of which are public on the petition’s webpage. 

“In Pullman, we don’t just have students straight out of high school,” she said. “We have parents, we have teachers. We have kids who come and visit our university.”

The notice sent to the community said Lawson is not permitted to reside in on-campus housing and is not facing any court-ordered restrictions.

Monson sent the petition to the Provost’s Office and directly to president Kirk Schulz as an official complaint. Monson said though many who signed the petition would like to see Lawson removed from all campuses, she would be content to see him switched to WSU Global.

“The safety of the people who are on campus is our first priority, and if that means that he is still technically a student under WSU, that is a compromise that I’m willing to live with as long as people are safe,” Monson said.

Monson said she has already received a response from the university, which said they appreciate the numbers the petition gathered and will consider a decision.

“We are meant to support each other and create a safe environment for each other and [for the university] to do something so blatantly against that, I think it’s just disrespectful,” Monson said.