Last week, a Rolling Stone article entitled “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” went viral. The article tells the story of a University of Virginia student referred to in the article as “Jackie.” Jackie reports that she was gang raped by seven members of Phi Kappa Psi. Following the outraged response of readers across the country, UVA has suspended all fraternity activities until spring semester; a slap on the wrist for a bunch of men who belong in prison.
According to the article, Jackie called her friends to pick her up immediately following her attack. The attack was brutal, but her friends would not take her to the hospital for fear of not being invited to future frat parties. Some of her closest friends accused her of looking for attention. One friend asked, “Why didn’t you just have fun with it?” Later, Jackie says that she spoke with the dean of students about the incident and was presented with a number of options, one being an informal confrontation with her attackers. Jackie, wondering how past victims of assault at UVA had acted, searched for past reports of sexual violence at the school but could not find anything. In fact, she couldn’t even find information on UVA’s rape statistics. There has never been a single student expelled for sexual misconduct. There have, however, been 183 people expelled for violating the honor code since 1998.
Yet the article discussed a 1984 incident wherein a freshman girl had also been gang raped, and at the same frat. The morning after her attack she went straight to the office of a UVA dean, covered in scabs and suffering from broken ribs, and he asked her, “Do you think it was just regrettable sex?” She wanted to call the police, but was incorrectly told that Charlottesville police lacked jurisdiction over fraternity houses.
Part of the reason this article is so infuriating is because it’s clear that this was not a one-time incident. UVA has been pushing sexual violence under the rug for at least 30 years. We only know about the experiences of the women who chose to come forward. Surely there are many who’ve had similar experiences that are still too fearful to go public with their story. But realistically, why would a victim go public with this if they went to UVA and knew they would only be ostracized by students and ignored by the administration?
Since the publishing of this article, several conservative publications have posted articles accusing Jackie and other victims of lying. If you search “UVA Rape” on Google, the first two articles that appear are titled, “The U-Va. Rape and Feminist Confusion” and “In the UVA Rape Case Liberals Dismayed to Learn That Facts Matter.” Why are articles like this necessary? Who is benefiting? A woman suffered more trauma and pain than most people could even fathom and spent two years walking among her attackers on campus, one of whom still attempted to talk to her, and another who was one of her classmates. She finally gathered the courage to go public and people instinctively responded with, “No, she’s lying.”
We have to stop being so skeptical of people who claim they have been assaulted. I can’t think of any other crime where we instinctively assume victims are lying the second they open their mouths. Why are rape reports treated differently?
Administrations everywhere must take all reports of sexual assault seriously. This rape, and so many others that we don’t know about, could have been prevented if only the university had acted appropriately 30 years ago when a freshman girl reported the same crime. It’s time to end the cycle once and for all.