A former Penn State student has confessed to vandalizing several landmarks on campus, including the Lion Shrine, and claimed she did it to speak out against the university being “the blueprint for mishandling negligence and concealing sexual abuse, hazing and student deaths.”
The Daily Collegian reported Friday that Julia Frances Cipparulo, a 2021 graduate, made the confession in an email, and the site said court documents say she has been charged with “one count of criminal mischief, one count of institutional vandalism on adjacent ground, one count of theft by unlawful taking of movable property and one count of receiving stolen property.”
The vandalism took place back in May during Penn State’s commencement.
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The Lion Shrine was splashed with red paint near the head and ear area, and an area was severely damaged, causing the area — typically a popular photo spot for graduates — to be closed to the public for three weeks. The Centre Daily Times reported that repairs cost around $26,000.
Also, Old Main and the Hintz Family Alumni Center were targeted. Old Main had “TIME IS UP,” painted on a door in big, red letters, too. Blue paint was reportedly used to write, “DEATH BY COP,” ‘DEATH BY HAZING,” “DEATH BY SUICIDE,” and “DEATH BY PSU CULTURE,” on other entrance ways.
The Hintz Family Alumni Center had “FTG” painted in big, red letters, and more writing that read, “Should have listened when you had the chance.”
Penn State called the vandalism “profoundly disturbing acts” at the time.
The Daily Collegian reported that Cipparulo said in her email to it that she believed in “nonviolence against human kind.”
“So when the pen failed, I picked up a sledgehammer and took to the Lion Shrine,” she allegedly wrote.
The Daily Collegian said the email was 32 pages in length. It said Cipparulo said the shrine’s broken ear should be “a permanent reminder of the dark side of Penn State University, the lives lost and a warning.” The site said Cipparulo allegedly went on to explain the meaning behind the statements that were written on the landmarks and referenced the deaths of Osaze Osagie, Timothy Piazza, Ashley Pauls and Justine Gross, each of which she reportedly claimed were preventable.
She wrote that she also lit four candles, one for each of the dead, across the campus.
Osagie was reportedly killed on March 20, 2019 when three police officers arrived at his apartment to perform a mental health warrant. Officers alleged that he ran at them with a knife before he was shot and killed, and none of the officers were charged in his death.
Piazza, 19, died in 2017 after “multiple falls down stairs at a pledging event,” for a fraternity.
The Daily Collegian said Pauls was a junior who “suddenly” died in 2021, and that Gross died after “a fall inside an 11th floor solid waste disposal chute at 456 E. Beaver Avenue on Nov. 10, 2021.”
Cipparulo allegedly told the Daily Collegian in her email that she had “no regrets,” and “would do it again every single time.”
“This PTSD was a graduation gift from my alma mater,” she allegedly wrote.
The Centre Daily Times reported that police say Cipparulo also vandalized the shrine, Old Main and the alumni center in June of 2021 and repairs cost $20,000 on that occasion.