Former IU student Declan Farley continues to fight for change after experiencing harassment in the dorms last year in a Sept. 5 TikTok.
After facing harassment and bullying from other students in his dorm at IU, former IU student Declan Farley posted a video on TikTok about his experience on Jan. 14, 2023. The video went viral, and Farley received support online and from IU students.
As an openly queer and transgender student, Farley said he felt unsafe at IU and was disappointed in the lack of support he received from university officials.
A few weeks later, although he decided to leave the university, Farley said he wasn’t done fighting to create change at IU. Then, on Sept. 5, Farley again used his TikTok presence to post a video update of the situation, criticizing the response he received from the IU Police Department about the harassment.
Farley said he wanted to wait to make the update video until students came back to campus, so people don’t forget what happened.
[Related: IU student pushes for change in viral TikTok after harassment in residence hall]
“I waited a while because my mental health was just drained, and it’s a hard fight to fight a huge system like that,” Farley said. “I feel like I’m in a much better place to fight for change now. There's no way I could have fought a good fight if I was not in a good place.”
In the video, Farley said IUPD opened a police report for the harassment incidents but then stopped responding to him.
“I gave them evidence from the incidents, and they told me that they found the student from one,” Farley said in the video. “They told me she was, and I quote ‘nice’, so they weren't going to do anything.”
Farley said he is not done sharing his story, so students know that even though it has been a while nothing has changed at IU.
“I think that it is a horrible system, but I don’t think that it’s not capable of being changed,” Farley said.
Barbara Brosher, Interim Executive Director of Media Relations and Editorial Content, and IUPD declined to comment because Farley is no longer an IU student.
[Related: Declan Farley to leave IU after lack of support from administration following harassment]
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect Barbara Brosher's most recent title.
