A Belmont UPS employee was fired Tuesday after multiple students came forward with claims of harassment.
This comes after reports of his inappropriate behavior circulated in response to a Belmont Confessions tweet authored by an anonymous female student who felt uncomfortable after the male employee made unwanted comments about her appearance on a consistent basis.
Multiple students replied with their own experiences, with some saying the employee wrote inappropriate messages on the store iPad when they came to pick up their package.
An hour before the tweet went up, a different student also filed a report with Campus Security addressing a similar pattern of behavior from the man. It turns out none of the women were alone.
“Before the tweet went live, I felt like he was just targeting me,” said Olivia Walker, the junior who filed the report after consistently receiving unwanted attention from the male employee on her frequent visits to pick up packages. It got to the point where she was afraid to go to the store by herself.
“does the guy that signs people out at the UPS store when you get a package hit on anyone else?? he does to me and it makes me so uncomfortable and i just wanted to see if it was happening to any others” — Belmont Confessions (@belmont_confess) November 16, 2021
On her most recent trip to the UPS store, Walker was apprehensive enough to bring her roommate along out of fear the man would make a more direct comment.
“He wrote on the iPad signature line, ‘How do you always look so perfect?’ And then he looked at me and said, ‘I’ve been wondering that for awhile,’” said Walker.
The Vision also spoke with the junior who submitted the Confessions tweet. She said the employee, who was hired for a temporary position, commented on her appearance and gave her preferential treatment when picking up packages.
“I have struggled with anxiety. And so it started to stress me out because I’m like, ‘I don’t want to have to deal with this.’ Like, I don’t want to talk to him,” said the student, who asked to remain anonymous.
Within 24 hours, her tweet had multiple responses from female students. On Tuesday, another tweet was posted anonymously to Confessions saying the “old creepy guy” had been let go from the store.
With both Campus Security and Belmont UPS aware of the allegations, the university provided a statement on the harassment claims to the Vision.
“Belmont does not and will not tolerate harassment of any kind; this includes partners and vendors that deliver services to our campus. Any allegations of harassment are taken very seriously as we seek to create a safe living, learning and working environment on campus,” Belmont’s Office of Communications said in the statement.
The store is an unavoidable part of residential life at Belmont, as it’s the only place on campus to pick up packages.
Belmont UPS general manager Nikkie Davis corresponded with the junior via email and said she understood the magnitude of the situation. Davis confirmed the employee had been fired.
“As a mother and a woman first, we take sexual harassment claims very seriously, that is not anything that we take lightly,” she told the Vison.
“That is not a reputation that we would like to hold with the UPS Store as the mail center for the university.”
Both Walker and the junior are relieved the man was fired and that other female students will not have to endure the same unwanted attention they received, they said.
And though the junior did not post the tweet with the intention of getting the employee fired, she feels it was the right decision, she said.
“We cannot keep making excuses for things like this,” she said.
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PHOTO: The Belmont UPS store at the corner of 12th Avenue and Acklen Avenue. Belmont Vision / Anna D’Amico.
This story was written by Sarah Maninger and Caitlin Reardon.