By D. Bell, UPTOWNflavor.com
A missing middle school teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem has been spotted checking her email at the Apple store in Midtown Manhattan. Hannah Upp has been missing from her Hamilton Heights apartment since Labor Day weekend. The 23 year-old Spanish teacher was scheduled to return to her teaching post at Thurgood Marshall the following Tuesday. Reports have surfaced that Upp had previous played hooky from work, but was given a “slap on the wrist.” Still, close friends of the missing woman say that it is out of character for her to voluntarily walk away, insisting that foul play is involved in the disappearance.
As a ray of hope, surveillance video showed Upp in the vicinity of Columbus Circle on Friday and Monday checking her email and possibly shopping. Detectives will be confirming whether Upp has accessed her email on the days that she was spotted on video. Upp’s family has already confirmed it was indeed her on the video and her brother wrote a relieved message on Facebook:
Hannah has been seen, and she is alive! There is still a lot of things we don’t know, but here is what `e can say so far. “there’s been a confirmed report that she has recently been seen alive in midtown NYC. We are ready to welcome Hannah back, with no questions asked. If anyone sees her, call 911 immediately.”
We’re not quite out of the woods yet, but this is obviously an incredible sign of hope. Please continue your vigilance and get this word out!
Hallelujah!
*Update: I came across this article which could explain how Hannah is able to survive without her ID and money on hand. Interestingly enough, this was only a month prior to her disappearance:
Freegans salvage food [NYDN]
The mysterious case of Hannah Upp [PW]
D. Bell
September 10, 2008
Hi everyone:
I’ve had to give too many reminders about personal attacks in the comments section lately. As I’ve stated before, making personal attacks does nothing but detracts from the discussion at hand. There is actually a code of conduct for commenting on this blog. You can find it in the FAQ section. If you haven’t taken a look or you haven’t read it in a while, please take a few moments to see what is considered good ‘Netiquette. It has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with each other – it is about making your point without degrading others.
On that note, it is my opinion that this post has gone completely off course, therefore I am closing the comments.
Thanks.
Elizabeth
September 10, 2008
People – Missing White Woman syndrome only applies when a woman of a color and a white woman go missing at the same time and the white woman receives all or the bulk of the attention.
When someone young goes missing, especially during a slow news summer, it gets noticed. If you can find me an example of a black/latino/asian woman who went missing at the same time as Hannah Upp and was ignored in favor of coverage about the white victim, then I’d believe you. Otherwise, you’re simply complaining that the disappearance of a white person got ANY attention at all.
What are people supposed to do? Pretend she’s not missing so as to not shake the false-racism sensors in people such as yourselves?
D. Bell
September 9, 2008
Emotions are really high regarding this situation and it is a ripe environment for misunderstandings. I think both sides are not “hearing” each other. To the friends and families, please know that the comments are not personal attacks on your loved one (with the exception of the “crack” line.) The point that people seem to be attempting to make is one that has been an issue in the black community for a long time. You may not have heard of the the “missing white woman syndrome” but it is an actual term used (see Wikipedia,) and was reported on by Anderson Cooper of CNN back when Natalee Holloway went missing. It was an issue then because during that same period, a black woman went missing, but didn’t receive the any media attention. The theory is that there is a bias in who gets media attention when they go missing. Again, it is not a personal attack on any individual, but it is the connection that some people make whenever one of these cases arises. From the comments that I’ve read, no one is judging her (other than the first commenter), they are judging the news agencies. I agree that we should all wait to find out why she felt that this was the only option she had before we rush to judgment — though we are all entitled to our opinions about the situation. As an aside, I think it is pretty cold-hearted that there are people who only care about those of their same race. I just wrote a post about the 13 year-old black child being killed (old enough to be a student of this teacher) and for only the black readers to care would be a sad state of affairs in this world that we live in. There are people who say that they believe in the “change” in this country that Sen. Obama speaks about, but they still hold onto the old attitudes. I find that disheartening. I personally work with people of all races and would be concerned about them if they disappeared. I would hope they would be just as concerned about me. And for the record, if it is wrong to have compassion for someone who is in pain (whatever the circumstances) then I’m just going to have be wrong. I stand by that. Be blessed.
jen
September 9, 2008
No one has the right to judge this girl unless they’ve been in her shoes. Hannah if you somehow read this I want you to know that its OK. If you’re half the girl that your friends and loved ones say you are, you were a perfect target for the administration of the DOE. Fellows are recruited in droves to patch the gaping hole left when teachers discover the reality of NYC public schools. The only thing that really matters is your work with the kids. You’re young and smart. Get yourself into a competitive graduate program Pace sucks anyway. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad, you did what you had to do for yourself. IF your friends are teachers they will understand and if they don’t they weren’t your friends. Every day you let go by your anxiety will get worse, just come home, get it over with and move on.
Sincerely,
Jen-FORMER Fellow and Pace student
anonymous
September 9, 2008
It’s called, Missing White Woman Syndrome, you can read about it at Wikipedia and yes, it’s rather sad to see Uptown Flavor become part of the fascinated crowd fawning, up in arms, and monitoring another Missing White Woman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
justme
September 9, 2008
I think what people are trying to express is that whenever a white woman is missing, the media makes it into a huge story while if another woman of any other race is missing-it’s a non-issue or a two second sound bite, It gives the impression that the life of a minority woman is less than.
This is no fault of the missing woman family but the fault of the media. It’s a sad commentary.
anonymous
September 9, 2008
Friends and family gathered around and did their best to get this story to media outlets out of a concern that on a human-level – not something specific to race, sex, or religion – makes complete sense when someone you know goes missing, and you don’t know what’s occurred to them. When someone in your life suddenly disappears, it is on a gut-level, terrifying. If Hannah was Asian, Hispanic, or Black, we would have done the same. Take a look at the people who came together for Hannah – we cut across all backgrounds and we came together as people who are concerned for another human. Petitioning media outlets to take this story on was no easy task, but we all came together to do what we could. As of yet, we still don’t know what the circumstances are, and people should strive to not pass judgment before being clear on the facts first.
Anonymous
September 9, 2008
Midtown, I am really trying (hard) to reserve judgment until we get all the facts, but I totally agree. There has been some speculation that she may be suffering from a mental illness disorder.
midtown manhattan
September 9, 2008
What makes me sad is that Ms. Upp may have inadvertently caused trouble for woman down the line who truly have been abducted. Whenever young women, like Ms. Upp fake their own disappearances in order to gain attention, it takes attention, time, resources, manpower and tax payer dollars away from cases that do need help.
This is like the boy who cried wolf. The more times we hear about fake abductions, the closer we become to people acting slower on real cases for women who really are in need!
D. Bell
September 9, 2008
Reader:
We give equal attention to all missing persons in Harlem. If you are a long time reader, then you know that we have featured Latino and Black missing people as well. We try to lead by example, rather than giving them a taste of their own medicine. Thanks for your comment and we appreciate your continued readership.
anonymous
September 9, 2008
Pathethic. Ameriac’s fascination with the “White Woman”. A Woman woman is missing on an island and CNN/FOX/MSNBC turn into the Natalee Holloway Networks, coming off a year of being the Laci Peterson Networks.
If a White woman is in trouble, oh my god, stop the world. The attention & energy invested into the narrative of the lost, missing, crazy (runaway bride, NASA astronut, etc.) white woman is absurd.
Now, a Harlem Blog is all wrapped up in full alert mode over the peril of a White Woman. If one need any more proof Black Harlem died 12 years ago, this blog is proof positive it did.
Thank you Uptown Flavor for exerting so much concern and energy over a missing White woman, i for one could not sleep for days once I heard a white woman was missing in Harlem. I was about to call Al Sharpton and see if we can start a march….errr…for something.
p.s., how much crack do you think this particular White woman smoked over the last 4 days?