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Student’s sexual assault experience gathers attention on Twitter after university ‘failed to act’

Tweets emerge as universities across the US come under fire amid allegations leaders 'cover up' rape cases to protect reputations

Student Editor

Wednesday 18 May 2016 12:47 BST

Spelman College president Mary Schmidt Campbell, pictured, reaches out to student to offer help and calls Twitter account 'disturbing' (via Spelman College/Facebook)

A student has reignited the topic of sexual assault on university campuses by turning to Twitter to share her harrowing story which has since gone viral.

The anonymous student - who says she is a first-year at Spelman College, part of the Atlanta University Centre (AUC) in the US - began the account under the handle @RapedAtSpelman, claiming the university failed to act when she raised the issue.

Describing how AUC students “blame and bash victims,” the woman wrote: “It’s sad I have to create a page to express myself rather than tweeting from my real account.

“This is my freshmen [sic] year at Spelman and my last year because I decided to leave after what happened to me.”

In a series of tweets, the student described how she was at a party with students from nearby Morehouse College, had too much alcohol, and went to the bathroom. She added: “When I opened the door, I was surrounded by 4 Morehouse students who took me to another room and took turns raping me.

“I was in shock about what had happened. I was drunk but that doesn’t mean I forgot about what happened.”

Since the account began to attract attention, Spelman College’s president, Mary Schmidt Campbell, reached out to the student on the social media site, urging her to reveal her identity to the president so she could offer her “full support and assistance.”

Issuing a statement to the student body, the president called the account “disturbing,” and added: “I know members of our Spelman community join me in expressing heartbreak and outrage over the incidents and experiences recounted on Twitter.

“We continue to follow leads to identify the victim to offer our help and services.”

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Show all 19

1/19Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Afghanistan

Recommendation: I urge the Government of Afghanistan to adopt legislative reforms to ensure that sexual violence offences are not conflated with adultery or “morality crimes” and to establish infrastructure for the delivery of protection, health and le gal services to survivors. I call on the Ministry of the Interior to accelerate efforts to integrate women into the Afghan National Police, thereby enhancing its outreach and its capacity to address sexual and gender-based violence

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Central African Republic

Recommendation: I urge the authorities of the Central African Republic to ensure that efforts to restore security and the rule of law take into account the prevention of sexual violence and that monitoring of the ceasefire and peace agreement explicitly reflects this consideration, in line with the joint communiqué of the Government and the United Nations on the prevention of and response to conflict-related sexual violence signed in December 2012. I further encourage the authorities to make the rapid response unit to combat sexual violence operational and to establish a special criminal court

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Colombia

Recommendation: I commend the Government of Colombia for the progress made to date and its collaboration with the United Nations, including through the visit of my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict in March 2015. I encourage the authorities to implement Law 1719 and continue to prosecute cases of sexual violence committed during the conflict to ensure that survivors receive justice and receive reparations. Conflict-related sexual violence should continue to be addressed in the Havana peace talks, as well as in the resulting accords and transitional justice mechanisms. Particular attention should be paid to groups that face additional barriers to justice such as ethnic minorities, women in rural areas, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals and women abused within the ranks of armed groups. I encourage the Government to scale up its protection measures and share its good practices with other conflict-affected countries

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Congo

Recommendation: I urge the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure full implementation of the armed forces action plan against sexual violence, to systematically bring perpetrators to justice and to deliver reparations to victims, including payment of outstanding compensation awards. I call on donors and the United Nations system to support the Government in its efforts and to pay increased attention to neglected areas, including unregulated mining regions

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Iraq

Recommendation: I commend the Government of Iraq for its national action plan for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and urge its swift implementation, including by training its security forces to ensur e respect for women’s rights. Programmes to support the social reintegration of women and girls released from captivity by ISIL are urgently needed, as is community-based medical and psychological care. The capacity of the United Nations system should be enhanced through the deployment of Women’s Protection Advisers or equivalent specialists

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Libya

Recommendation: I urge the national authorities in Libya to implement Decree No. 119 and Resolution 904 of 2014 to ensure redress for all victims, including those affected by the current conflict, through the establishment of multisectoral services and the adoption of legislation to categorically prohibit sexual violence

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Mali

Recommendation: I urge the Government of Mali, with support from United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat sexual and gender-based violence and to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers so that services can reach remote areas. I further call on all parties to ensure that conflict-related sexual violence is addressed in the inter-Malian dialogue and that perpetrators of sexual violence do not benefit from amnesty or early release

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Myanmar

Recommendation: I urge the Government of Myanmar to continue with its reform agenda and, in the process, take practical and timely actions to protect and support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and to ensure that security personnel accused of such crimes are prosecuted. Sexual violence should be an element in all ceasefire and peace negotiations, excluded from the scope of amnesty provisions and addressed in transitional justice processes. It is critical that women be able to participate consistently in and influence these processes

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Somalia

Recommendation: I reiterate my call to the Federal Government of Somalia to implement the commitments made under the joint communiqué of 7 May 2013 and its national action plan to combat sexual violence in conflict, including specific plans for the army and the police. I encourage the adoption of a sexual offences bill as a matter of priority

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

South Sudan

Recommendation: I urge the parties to the conflict in South Sudan to adopt action plans to implement the commitments made under their respective communiqués. I call upon the Government of South Sudan to address the negative impact of customary law on women’s rights and to reflect international human rights standards in national law. I also encourage the African Union to make public and act upon the report of its Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Sudan (Darfur)

Recommendation: I call upon the Government of the Sudan to grant the United Nations and its humanitarian partners unfettered access for monitoring and the provision of assistance to people in need in Darfur. Given that there has been grave concern over sexual violence in Darfur for more than a decade, I encourage the Government to engage with my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict to develop a framework of cooperation to address the issue comprehensively

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Syria

Recommendation: I acknowledge the Government’s invitation to my Special Representative to visit the Syrian Arab Republic and call upon the authorities, in the context of such a visit, to agree on specific measures to prevent sexual violence, including by members of the security forces. I condemn the use of sexual violence by ISIL and all other parties listed in the annex to the present report and call on them to cease such violations immediately and allow unfettered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Yemen

Recommendation: I urge the authorities in Yemen to undertake legislative reform as a basis for addressing impunity for sexual violence, ensuring the provision of services for survivors and aligning the minimum legal age of marriage with international standards. I further call on the authorities to engage with local community and faithbased leaders to address sexual and gender-based violence and discriminatory social norms

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Recommendation: I urge the relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to harmonize legislation and policies so that the rights of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to reparations are consistently recognized and to allocate a specific budget for this purpose. I further call upon the authorities to protect and support survivors participating in judicial proceedings through, inter alia, referrals to free legal aid, psychosocial and health services, as well as economic empowerment programmes

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Ivory Coast

Recommendation: I urge the Government of Côte d’Ivoire to ensure the effective implementation of its national strategy to combat gender-based violence and the action plan for FRCI, and call on the international community to support these efforts. It is critical to accelerate disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and strengthen law enforcement to ensure that ex-combatants who have been reintegrated into the transport sector do not pose a risk to women and girls who are reliant on those services. The Government and the international community must provide monitoring and awareness-raising to mitigate the possibility of a recurrence of sexual violence in the context of the presidential elections to be held in October 2015

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Liberia

Recommendation: I call on the Government of Liberia to continue its critical efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence including through the United Nations-Government of Liberia Joint Programme, and in the context of recovery from the Ebola virus epidemic

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Nepal

Recommendation: I encourage the Government to ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are recognized under the law as “conflict victims”, which will enable them to access services, judicial remedies and reparations. I further call on all parties involved in the transitional justice process to ensure that the rights and needs o f survivors of sexual violence are addressed in institutional reforms and that these crimes are excluded from amnesties and statutes of limitations

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Sri Lanka

Recommendation: I call upon the newly elected Government of Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of sexual violence, including against national armed and security forces, and to provide multisectoral services for survivors, including reparations and economic empowerment programmes for women at risk, including war widows and female heads of household

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life

Nigeria

Recommendation: I encourage the Government to implement its national action plan on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) to ensure that women’s protection concerns are mainstreamed throughout its security operations. I also call upon the authorities to guarantee security in and around internally displaced persons camps and to extend medical and psychosocial services to high-risk areas

The president then went on to highlight a series of measures, called Title IX, the college has in place to help victims of sexual violence. However, in a statement of her own, the anonymous student claimed both Spelman and Morehouse do not take cases as seriously as they say they do.

She said: “All the survivors at the AUC, if asked, would tell you there has been little to no progress on their Title IX cases.”

Morehouse president, John Silvanus Wilson, said in a statement the tweets were the college’s “very first indication” of the incident. He added: “At Morehouse, we take seriously all allegations of sexual assault and we are redoubling our efforts to ensure our students and students throughout AUC are encouraged to report any such incident.

“Now that we are aware of these allegations, we are determined to pursue the investigation to the fullest extent possible.

Inside Higher Ed has reported how the Spelman College case isn’t the only one gathering momentum, as victims from other institutions from across the country take to social media sites to highlight their own experiences following dissatisfaction over how universities are handling incidents.

Universities across the US have come under intense fire amid allegations institution leaders are covering up sexual violence cases in order to protect their reputations and commercial interests.

The issue was explored recently in an award-winning documentary-film, The Hunting Ground, in which victims and experts provided their own insights into on-campus rape culture, with one telling the film: “They [universities] protect perpetrators because they have a financial incentive to do so.”

Others claimed “sexual assault on campuses is enormous” and that “universities cover such crimes up” because they are “protecting a brand.”

Closer to home, in the UK, the distributor of the film told the Independent in September last year there was a similar and worrying trend of sexual assault on UK campuses and, referring to two NUS reports, added how one in seven (14 per cent) British women students is affected, compared with one in five (23 per cent) in the US.

Sexual violence in schools

Drinkaware also recently interviewed just over 2,000 UK students to find 54 per cent of females had received inappropriate sexual comments, abuse, or inappropriate sexual touching on a night out over a 12-month period.

Drinkaware’s CEO, Elaine Hindal, said: “Universities are well placed to support students who have experienced unwanted sexual attention and to campaign against it, but students are still more likely to tell a friend than anyone in authority.

“We encourage universities and young adults to reinforce the message that if a behaviour isn’t acceptable sober, it isn’t acceptable drunk.”

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