University of Puget Sound Students Escape Dorm
Two 16-year-old students are released from custody after jumping from a dormitory window to runaway, a case dismissed by the school president.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Alice Griffin and May Kilter, two 16-year-old girls who ran away after jumping from a window of the University of Puget Sound girls' dormitory last Wednesday night, were released by Captain Read this morning. The girls had been arrested in Kent on Saturday afternoon on warrants sworn to by President L. L. Denbow. The president appeared at the police station today, stating that he wished to dismiss the case due to the youth of the two girls, and requested permission to return them home. The students claimed they ran away from school simply for a lark and intended to return in a few days.
“The girls claim that they just ran away from school for a lark, and that they were going back again in a few days.”
This story offers a glimpse into the strict, parental-like control universities exerted over female students at the time. The University of Puget Sound remains a central fixture in Tacoma, and this incident reflects the tensions between young independence and institutional surveillance in the early 1900s.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.