Georgetown University
Campus Injustice: A Story of Predatory Rape.
By Kate Dieringer
When I arrived as an enthusiastic freshman
at Georgetown University in the fall of 2001, I was prepared
to take on and learn from all of the expected pressures
that come with college life. But no matter how much I
had prepared myself for the new life that I would be adopting
at college, I would have never been ready for the life
of imprisonment, depression, and frustration that was
my freshman year.
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Left to right: Kate Dieringer, S.Daniel Carter, Mr.
and Mrs. Shick |
I went through New Student Orientation, making new friends
and learning about everything from binge drinking on campus
to where to go if you need help with your chemistry homework.
What they didn’t educate me about was who one of the orientation
leaders was, and more importantly what he was capable of doing
to anyone who befriended him.
I found out soon though, because in my third week of college
he drugged and raped me while I was unconscious in his apartment.
I thought that I had taken every precautionary measure to
protect myself from what I defined as rape. I went out with
a group of people that I knew, covered the few drinks that
I poured myself, and did not isolate myself from safe people
and places during any time during the night. But my rapist
knew that I was vulnerable, and preyed on that.
He took me away from the group, having a friend hold my friends
back while dragging me back into his apartment. They had no
idea where I had gone, and I had no idea about the violence
that was about to be inflicted at the hands of my schoolmate.
I woke up four hours later. I was groggy and confused.
To my horror, I realized what was happening to me. I was being
raped. At that exact moment, I was afraid for my life. I didn’t
understand why he was doing this to me, because he was my
friend. As far as I knew, rape was always some stranger with
a weapon, jumping out from a bush in an alley and having sex
while the victim cried and screamed. So what was this? He
wasn’t a stranger at all; he was my friend and an NSO advisor.
He wasn’t hitting me and there surely was no weapon involved.
And the most shameful part was it would take months for me
to fully forgive myself. I wasn’t fighting at all. I was just
lying there, paralyzed. I tried to forcefully say “no” and
push him off of me. He ignored my pleas. When I finally kicked
him off, he threw an obscenity at me. I gathered up my things,
but left my trust in all of humanity in that room.
After that night I was afraid of all people. If he was capable
of minimizing me down to only an object and not a human being,
then I thought all people were the same. So I was afraid of
people, but I was also terrified of being alone. I was depressed,
but I had no idea why I burst out crying or had nightmares.
All because I wasn’t identifying myself as a rape victim.
I blamed myself for it all. In April of the same year I couldn’t
bear my prison that he had put me in any longer. I wanted
my life back. I sought help in the counseling center, the
sexual assault coordinator, and a few friends. After I gained
their support and more understanding about what had been done
to me, I decided to proceed through adjudication.
The Office of Student Conduct (OSC) handled my case. I had
to report the rape to the Dept. of Public Safety, tell my
parents, and collect witnesses. I was met with opposition
from the beginning from the OSC. The director, Judy Johnson,
called me a “woman scorned” and the hearing process was unbelievably
in my rapist’s favor.
He received every benefit, every bit of leeway from the OSC.
After the hearing board heard my case, which lasted two days
and fifteen plus hours, the university made me sign a confidentiality
agreement saying that I wouldn’t talk about any outcome from
the adjudication.
They told me that their policy as well as federal law required
them to have me sign the statement in order to even receive
the outcome of the hearing, although I later found out this
wasn’t true! I wanted to know if he would be returning so
that I could decide if I was going to remain a student at
the University, so I signed the agreement. This only encouraged
me to be silent about my rape and was detrimental to the healing
process that I was trying to accomplish in order to regain
my life back. The adjudication set me back in moving forward.
I did not need to be revictimized and abused by the system.
I had had enough pain to last a lifetime. Universities must
realize that victims are their students, as well as individuals.
We do not need to be treated like ‘women scorned’. It takes
so much strength, support, and courage for a victim just to
come forward. To silence him/her after they entrust you with
their most guarded possession -trust (which has already been
broken)-is to revictimize the victim, abuse them, and deter
them from healing.
Universities must promote environments that support all victims
and work to provide some type of retribution if they seek
it. They must strive to break the deafening silence that oppresses
the many victims of one of the most heinous crimes in our
world - RAPE!!!
Read the original article at:
Security on Campus
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