The mother of an NIU student sent an open letter to Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday, alleging that the NIU Department of Public Safety didn’t adequately notify the community about missing student Antinette Keller.

The letter was sent by Campus Enforcement of Accountability for a Safer Environment, a group whose Facebook page was created over the weekend.

The C.E.A.S.E. Facebook page was created by Annette Barson, the mother of Sara Pezel, a sophomore music education major at NIU and Keller’s next-door neighbor in Neptune Hall North.

The letter says that NIU did not inform the community of Keller’s disappearance immediately after she was reported missing.

“We need answers,” the letter reads. “Why did an entire weekend pass until students, parents and community residents received any information that Toni was missing? Why did we have to gather facts through word of mouth or reports being classified as ‘alleged’ on local news radio, because of a media blackout? Why were Toni’s parents the only ones handing out posters and ‘missing’ fliers last Saturday and Sunday, when an entire community could have been assisting in the search in that crucial “first-48-hour” search window? Why were Toni’s parents desperately questioning students on campus, on their own, searching for any information that could help them find the 19-year-old daughter who was to spend the weekend at home with them?”

A C.E.A.S.E. flyer was distributed on campus to promote a “peaceful protest” planned for 5 p.m. in the MLK Commons Monday night.

“I wanted to see if anyone feels the same way I do about the lack of response,” Pezel said. “Nobody knows what’s going on, and it shouldn’t be that way.”

The protest was initially advertised on the “Missing Antinette Keller” Facebook page, but an administrator for the page removed the post. 

Pezel said that the university warned some students not come to the protest, but she was not contacted directly.  After receiving e-mails from some of those students, Barson said she decided to cancel the event.

If someone did tell people planning on attending the protest not to come, “they certainly did not have university approval to do it,” said Brad Hoey, NIU team leader of Media Relations and Internal Communications.

 

As of Monday night, Quinn has yet to directly respond to the letter, Barson said.