My group and I interviewed Anna, who unfortunately was a victim of sexual assault on a college campus and had to suffer through dealing with the college’s awful, unjust ways of handling her rape case. Anna went to LREI until the end of tenth grade. Then transferred to York and went to Hobart College. We got in contact with her through our teachers who taught Anna and we spoke to her through email and we were able to find a good time to meet with her for an interview. When Anna was eighteen years old, a freshman at Hobart College, she was gang raped. A night in college she was taken advantage of, after having been drinking, by a group of college boys (football players). Her friend found her bent over a pool table being sexually assaulted and then took her to the doctor where they confirmed it was a blunt force trauma within the last  24 hours indicating “intercourse with either multiple partners, multiple times or that the intercourse was very forceful.” The football players denied the rape charges and were not found guilty or expelled, when they really all should be in jail. This was after there was clear evidence that she was raped due to the semen found on her underwear. This was an extremely mishandled case, just like many other college rape cases that have occurred. Anna made the decision to go back to college when she then received death threats and made the decision to leave the college for good. She was treated unfairly in this situation and she deserves justice.

We learned a lot from our interview with her as to what it is like to be in that situation and what we can do, as eighth graders to help this complex issue. When we talked to Anna about rape education for teenagers, who will eventually be going to college and having to face this issue, she said it is important for people to know what to do when they are assaulted, but not be too scared because although this issue is awful it should not prevent people from going to college. I think it is important to inform boys and girls of the issue of rape and why it is wrong because then it might prevent it from happening, which relates to the idea of “teach men not to rape instead of teaching girls not to be raped”. We also discussed the idea of blaming girls for being raped and making them feel guilty for what happened, but it is very important to remember that this could happen to anyone and it is not the victim’s fault. It is important to fight for your rights and not be silenced by a college’s inability to handle sexual assault cases. Since it has been difficult to find volunteer work for this issue we asked Anna what ways we could get involved and she said that although volunteering would be hard to do as Eighth Graders, there are many people that we could meet with. Also, it is most important to spread the word about this issue and inform people which we can definitely do at our age. From Anna, I learned about an organization at Columbia University where girls who have been sexually assaulted meet and discuss the topic. So, my group and I want to get in contact with them and possibly sit in on a meeting. Overall, this fieldwork was a success and I am so inspired by Anna’s strength and what she has done to be an activist for ending college rape. It was amazing to meet with her and get her perspective and hear her ideas.

Anna at Hobart College (NY Times Photo for Article)