Former Mount Holyoke Professor of Art and Studio Art Chair Rie Hachiyanagi has been in custody since December 2019. She will continue to be held without bail until her trial, which is scheduled for November 2020.
Hachiyanagi was charged with multiple counts, including attempted murder, following her alleged assault on a fellow Mount Holyoke faculty member some time between Dec. 23 and Dec. 24, 2019. She has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
On Monday, Sept. 7, a group of Trump supporters participated in a “Back the Blue” pro-police demonstration in front of the South Hadley Village Commons. The event, advertised on Facebook and hosted by Dianna Ploss, whose Facebook profile indicates she is a former Massachusetts deputy state campaign director for Donald J. Trump for President, garnered pushback from Mount Holyoke College students.
On Feb. 17, The New York Times published an exposé on the practice of performing pelvic examinations on non-consenting, anesthetized patients. The article, titled “She Didn’t Want a Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway,” details the story of both Weitz and nurse Janine, who also received a pelvic exam despite explicitly telling her doctor she preferred that medical students were not present, and never consented to the examination. Janine did not provide her last name.
