Kansas University students Shannon Williams, left, and Jenni Holtaway have started an awareness campaign called Bag

Two Kansas University students are disturbed by a national trend known as “bum bashing,” and they’re determined to help end that sort of violence in Lawrence.

“Bum bashing” is when a group of people attacks a homeless person.

Shannon Williams and Jenni Holtaway, both KU students pursuing master’s degrees in social work, said 142 people were attacked in such incidents nationwide last year. Twenty of those people were killed.

Two Lawrence homeless people were attacked in February.

“This is wrong. We need to do something about it,” Holtaway said.

In an effort to promote awareness, Williams and Holtaway have planned a visual display of the 144 people who have been attacked. They’re asking for donations of new and lightly used sleeping bags to display May 5 in South Park. Each bag will be tagged with the name of an individual who was a victim of violence.

“We want people to know this is going on. There are so many people that don’t know and are shocked when we tell them,” Holtaway said.

After the display concludes, Williams and Holtaway will donate the sleeping bags to the Lawrence Community Shelter, 214 W. 10th St., and the Salvation Army, 946 N.H.

In addition to the “Bag the Violence” project, which is the sleeping bag collection, the KU students are reaching out to classes and organizations to teach people about these attacks.

Williams said many people are uneducated about the homeless.

“These people are being beaten, raped or set on fire,” Williams said. “The homeless people are as scared of society as society is of them.”

Loring Henderson, executive director of Lawrence Community Shelter, agreed. Henderson said he is highly supportive of the project.

“(Violence) is a serious issue. Homeless people are afraid because that has happened a lot,” he said.

Henderson said he was encouraged that these kinds of violent acts are comparatively rare in Lawrence, and he credits Lawrence police for creating a general atmosphere of safety.

He is excited and appreciative of the possibility of receiving sleeping bags.

“Sleeping bags are worth their weight in gold to homeless people,” Henderson said. “Sleeping bags help make people just a little more comfortable.”

Anyone wanting to donate a sleeping bag can drop it off at the Lawrence Community Shelter or the Pelathe Center, 1423 Haskell Ave. Holtaway also said she’d be willing to pick up donations.

More information is available by sending an e-mail to Shoutlawrence@gmail.com or by calling Holtaway at 766-6539. Holtaway and Williams would like to have all of the sleeping bags collected by May 1.