Celeste remembers her stalking experience with an ex-boyfriend all too well.

“He threatened to beat me up, threatened to run me over, threatened to get me fired, and threatened to call the police and tell them I was a missing person. Everywhere I went, he was there. I felt scared and trapped,” said Celeste, whose name has been changed.

Friends and family did not see his true nature; he put up a front for other people and was considered a real catch, Celeste said. They thought he was so nice and handsome, and thought Celeste was the one with the problem.

“I didn’t want to have to file a restraining order. It’s just embarrassing,” she said. She wasn’t sure if it would even help.

Stalking on college campuses is a disturbing trend only recently getting recognition. Sen. Mike DeWine authored a resolution that passed in the Senate in November that recognized January as National Stalking Awareness Month. The purpose of this resolution is educating Americans about the threat of stalking and also praise the many advocates for victims.

“Stalking is an issue that cuts across all lines of race, age and gender,” DeWine said. “It is a tremendous problem, and it is one that we need to do more to address. We can – and we should – do more to ensure that stalkers are brought to justice and that their victims are not forced to live in fear.”

The resolution was welcome news for the National Center for Victims of Crime, which says over 1 million women and nearly 400,000 men are stalking victims annually in the United States. Information from the center says 13 percent of female college students have been stalked, and 80 percent of the time victims knew their stalker.

Louise A. Douce, director of Counseling and Consultation Services in the Younkin Success Center at Ohio State, agrees that stalking is a growing concern.

“One of the increasing trends is people putting a lot of personal information on Facebook and other people seeing that and thinking they know that person,” Douce said. “The majority of victims know their stalker, but there are people mentally ill who stalk, or a person who thinks they’re getting attention. It has more to do with the stalkers mindset or quality of relationship.”

College campuses are more susceptible to stalking victimization because there are a high number of people looking to date and form relationships. Douce said flirtatious behavior crosses from just persistence to stalking when it becomes an issue of control; the stalker will not take no for an answer, he or she feels the relationship is predestined, and feels he or she has a “right to you,” or says things to the effect of “you make me do this,” Douce said.

Phyllis Carlson-Riehm, executive director of ACTION OHIO Coalition for Battered Women, said incidents of stalking are woefully underreported because victims do not know what to do or are not aware of what constitutes stalking.

“If there are two or more incidents of unwanted contact within a close period of time, that qualifies as menacing by stalking. It can go on for a period of time, even if the victim isn’t physically injured, there is a psychological toll,” Carlson-Riehm said. “There are victims who leave college because they’re stalking victims. Maybe they don’t know what to do, haven’t reported it, haven’t gotten support or haven’t maintained evidence.”

“People many times misunderstand stalking. Law enforcement doesn’t always tease out that the situation is a stalking incident. Many crimes co-exist with stalking and they get the attention. Maybe a victim is being stalked, and as a result, their car is being vandalized and apartment broken into. The police focus on the vandalism rather than the fact that it is stalking.”

ACTION OHIO has a Web site called the Campus Stalking Project at www.actionohio.org that gives tips for stalking victims to be proactive about stopping their attacker.

Douce’s main advice is to start a “stalking log” that notes the time, place, dates of contact and witnesses. One should keep any gifts, copies of e-mails they send, anything, Douce said. Tell the attacker in writing to leave you alone and contact the campus police – keep calling if necessary. Be consistent and firm in telling the stalker no. If the contact escalates from unwanted contact to personal property damage and threats, file a report and talk to police at once. Most of all, be careful where your personal information is listed, Douce added.

Celeste had to move to a different city to get away from her stalker.

“I think when I had the police escort me out of my old apartment and into my new apartment, he knew I was serious,” she said.