Rape is NOT like a Football Game

In 2007, Annie Clark was [legal word, allegedly] raped.  She was a student at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  She reported the rape to the University.

When then student Annie Clark reported her rape to an unnamed administrator at UNC, he told her that rape is like a football game.  That looking back, she might have wished she had done something differently.  Annie Clark and Andrea Pino-- also a sexual assault survivor from UNC/Chapel Hill-- began the process to submit a formal complaint to the United States Department of Education, Civil Rights over their treatment by UNC after reporting that they were raped.  They were joined by a third student who had to remain anonymous due to safety concerns and Landen Gambill, along with a former assistant dean at UNC.

In 2009, student Landen Gambill reported that her ex-boyfriend raped her after she had broken up with him due to his abusive behavior.  Both were students at University North Carolina - Chapel Hill and as far as I can tell, still are.

Landen Gambill, like other survivors of sexual assault at that time, was advised to go through UNC's Honor Court-- which is a student-run but with faculty advisors non-legal court system set up so the legal students could have some practice in their chosen profession-- but there were problems.  Her counsel asked her to recount the rape in full detail.  After being assured that any documents and reports submitted to the Honor Court would be held in confidence, her counsel gave papers involving her testimony to her parents.  He used the excuse that he thought her parents ought to know some things in there.

There were also varying accounts of how much training specific to sexual assault cases and vics that the Honor Court folks received.  Someone at the University initially claimed there was a whole day of specific training.  A student involved with the Honor Court program said maybe an hour.  Someone at the University then revised the estimate from a whole day to oh the training was/is given on an individual basis.  It appears that the Honor Court no longer addresses sexual assault cases.  That might have been a sort of end to it except for this: 

Five days ago, on February 22, Landen Gambill received a notice that she had violated some rule or other of the University Code involving the intimidation of another student [or according to one commenter on another site: talking about the Honor Court's "private hearing"].  The notice was written by Elizabeth Ireland, graduate student Attorney General.   The other student in this case is Landen Gambill's ex-boyfriend, the [legal word, alleged] rapist.  Expulsion is at the top of the list of what the penalties are for violating the University Code.

radical sapphoq says: Expulsion is not a suitable "punishment" for a survivor of sexual assault who has been speaking out about rape publicly.  Neither are suspensions, probations, loss of academic grades, a written warning, an educational "assignment", or loss of "privileges."  There should be NO penalty to Landen Gambill for speaking out publicly about her sexual assault.  The Honor Court at UNC - North Carolina should have left this one alone.  I can't help but guess that the [legal word: alleged] rapist is the one who brought up the new "charges" i.e. complained to the Honor Court that Landen Gambill's publicity [N.B. She has not mentioned his name] is effecting his grades, his well-being or causing him to feel "unsafe."  Perhaps he wasn't, but that is my guess.  And again, only a guess.
This whole affair smacks of just one more justification to call the culture among certain schools and universities a hostile culture, a culture of abuse, and/or a rape culture.  Meanwhile, the [legal word, alleged] rapist is living in the dorms across the road from Landen Gambill.  

They live among us.  Student rapists, administrators who tell a survivor of sexual assault that rape is like a football game, Honor Courts who "find" alleged rapists not guilty and survivors guilty.  They move among us.  Old men who beat kids in Florida Reform Schools until their backsides were black in a punishment building called "The White House" and raped them under the dining room in a basement referred to as "The Rape Room"; younger men and women at troubled teen industry facilities who direct teens to lie on the floor for hours in unnatural positions, or lock them in dog cages or deny them medical treatment, adequate food, or proper sleep; middle-aged staffers and corrections officers who still have the strength to knock a student or juvenile prisoners to the ground during a face down restraint; puppets who push buttons in order to deliver shocks to autistic kids in institutions for going off task during class time.  They travel among us.  Survivors who are beautiful in their resistance to the shaming and silencing imposed by a sick and corrupt System.




 References:

 http://jezebel.com/5986693/college-rape-survivor-faces-potential-expulsion-for-intimidating-her-rapist

 http://feministing.com/2012/12/06/unc-students-plan-to-file-title-ix-complaint-with-the-office-of-civil-rights/

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2012/12/victims-speak-up-on-assault

http://safe.unc.edu/2013/01/17/recent_new/

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2013/01/5-submit-complaint-against-unc-over-sexual-assault

http://www.gurl.com/2013/02/26/rape-survivor/

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/unc-may-expel-rape-victim-landen-gambill-speaking-about-her-case#

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-pino/unc-sexual-assault-_b_2497326.html

http://bust.com/blog/unc-student-may-be-expelled-for-refusing-to-remain-silent-about-her-rape.html