The Hunting Ground Page #3

Not only was my mind in a place

of turmoil, my body was as well.

I had nightmares that were so vivid

that I would wake up

and my neck was bleeding

of how much I was scratching off

that invisible rapist

on my neck again.

So finally, when it became

very overwhelming,

I knew that I couldn't

keep denying it anymore.

So actually the first person

I told was Annie Clark.

She was a senior

when I was a first year.

I kind of Facebooked her,

and I said, you know,

"Can I talk to you about something?"

Hey, it's Annie.

Yeah, how are you doing?

- I mean, we just hit it off.

- Oh, my gosh.

She, till this day, has been

my greatest support system.

Are you in a place... Do you feel

comfortable talking about it, or...?

After I spoke to Annie,

I came out publicly to the entire campus

in October of my sophomore year

with a project called The Courage Project,

which was a photo project

of survivors on campus.

As I became more public,

I became kind of that gateway for people

to actually start talking about

what had happened to them.

Within four weeks,

I met nine rape survivors at UNC.

My school needed to know

this was a problem,

and I thought that

they honestly just didn't know.

I made meetings with the Vice Chancellor,

and I made meetings

with the Dean of Students,

and they were passed off

and ignored and delayed.

And I kept saying,

"UNC has a problem with sexual assault. "

I had the same meeting

with the Chancellor four years ago,

and it's like, as soon as there's

a new cycle of students,

there's no institutional memory,

and the problem starts all over again.

And so unless you have...

To see it happen with my friends

going through the same thing

I experienced six years ago,

it's heartbreaking.

And it's... That has affected me

more than my own rape.

People stop talking about it,

and then it just continues

and it makes you wonder,

what is it gonna take?

And we started working

with Dean Melinda Manning,

who was somebody who a lot of survivors

have worked with and trusted.

So in your time at UNC,

how many students came to you

and said they'd been assaulted?

Um... yeah, it's hard

to put a number on it, so...

At least 100.

And of the hundred,

how many of the perpetrators

were removed from campus?

From what I remember,

no one was expelled during that time.

So these guys

could just get away with it?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And people could commit it repeatedly.

I was certainly aware of some individuals

who had committed it repeatedly.

A survivor

at Occidental College contacted me.

I noticed that her rapist's name

matched the name of two other cases.

So, she was the third student

to be raped by this student.

And the most troubling aspect

of this case

is that he was allowed back,

or is allowed to come back onto campus.

I thought it was only one,

but now I know there's two other women.

And who knows who else

who just wasn't able to step forward.

It seemed like prime hunting ground

for someone like him.

My assailant,

he's done much worse to other people.

He has assaulted at least four different

women. That's just who I know of.

About two weeks after I reported,

I got a call from the detective,

saying that they found two other girls

that he had previously raped.

And they were both

University of Tulsa students,

and they had both reported to the school.

The vast majority of men

don't rape, won't rape, haven't raped,

so when you start looking at the rapists

who are committing these crimes,

it is the repeat offenders

who are the core of this problem.

I was incarcerated for six

and a half years for sexual assault.

I... I know I was at fault.

You know, like I said, I guess the reason

I really wanted to do this interview

was to maybe help someone else out.

You know, maybe have them

become aware of,

you know,

what they're doin' wrong.

The really practiced sex offenders

identify groups of people

who are more vulnerable.

College is a place where

lots of alcohol's consumed,

and the number of victims is endless.

These men

select victims ahead of time.

It could be a bar.

It could be a fraternity party

where people are drinking.

At the parties, like, frat parties,

I mean, people are getting wasted.

So it's not like... A lot of the time,

dependin' on who they're with,

nobody, um, keeps an eye on them.

The alcohol is

essentially a weapon

that is used to render somebody

extremely vulnerable.

Alcohol definitely makes it

easier to overpower a victim.

If they're inebriated or under

the influence, less struggle, for sure.

And then there's

an isolation phase.

So, you know, somebody who has

deliberately gotten this young woman

extremely intoxicated,

and at some point he says to her,

"I'll walk you back to your room. "

or, "You can sleep it off if you want.

We have a bed upstairs. "

And that's where

the assault occurs.

A lot of people say, "Why don't

they just have students go to the police?"

I have a lot of good friends who are

police officers, and I love them dearly,

but they have some work to do.

Even if law enforcement

does do a good job,

a lot of district attorneys

don't wanna take these cases.

And even if there is a prosecution,

it takes a long time.

It takes a year, two years.

In the meantime, that alleged perpetrator

could do it again and again and again.

So universities,

if they have good evidence

that somebody is perpetrating

that crime on that campus,

they should remove them

to protect their other students,

with or without the police.

No more violence!

No more rape!

No more silence! No more hate!

What we're seeing today

has been going on

for a very long time

on college campuses.

Sexual violence has always been

part of the college experience.

Here at Brown University,

names of men accused of rape

appeared on bathroom walls

all over the campus.

The administration

called the tactic vigilantism.

One student had a word

for the women who did it:

Idiots. I have a lot

of friends on the list,

and by no means are they rapists.

They might be aggressive

at parties, flirtatious.

And if girls carry a grudge,

they call 'em rapists.

And to be saying that just because

a woman says no and because you have sex,

those are the two facts.

The woman said no and you had sex.

Then are you a rapist

automatically because of that?

A national study says one

out of every four female college students

will be the victim of a rape

or attempted sexual assault.

The first national study was done...

published in 1987.

Mary Koss's survey

of colleges around the country.

And those numbers have been

replicated over and over again.

Good evening.

As troubling as your statistics,

are charges that this date

or acquaintance rape

is being hidden

by universities and colleges

in order to protect their image among

prospective students and their families.

We had been trying

to change the university for years,

and nothing was getting any better.

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