The Hunting Ground Page #5

in... in raping the victim,

but I also had friends of his

that helped convince her

that there was a party

that she was going to.

The university had

their judicial hearing.

I had this idealistic view

that if I was telling the truth

that they would support me.

And, um... they didn't.

They preferred to have the crime stats

as low as possible,

so that, you know,

it doesn't detract

from applicants to the university.

I met with the president

of Saint Mary's, Dr. Mooney.

Hello, I'm Carol Ann Mooney,

President of Saint Mary's College.

Saint Mary's must always be committed

to providing our students

with an excellent intellectual

and academic experience.

She kind of blew it off

and didn't take it seriously, you know.

She said, "Well, these things

don't happen here. "

It got worse and worse for me

as the years went along.

Um... not only dealing with

what happened to the victim,

but also dealing with

what the university did.

My bosses were saying that they had

empathy for victims of crimes,

but it was like

I told them, that... that

"Talk is cheap.

And that's all it is

with you guys is talk.

You don't really support

victims of crimes.

I do.

And I can't work

for you any longer. "

I didn't really talk about it.

I kinda just...

stayed in my room

for a couple months until Christmas.

And I didn't sleep.

My nights and days

were mixed up. Um...

I had to, um...

couldn't go to class,

and so I cut down.

I just completely changed

as a person.

I think the biggest reason

why it's so hard to be on a college campus

after you've been raped or sexually

assaulted is that it's a small place,

right, where everything is structured.

Your living space is structured,

your eating space is structured,

so you're gonna run into your rapist.

I couldn't go out.

Like, I couldn't mingle with strangers.

I felt the campus getting

smaller and smaller to me.

There were less and less places

I felt comfortable going.

I walk around with my pepper spray

on my keys, and I'm always just on edge.

There's a whole

physiological side to PTSD.

When you experience

a traumatic event like this,

your nervous system, um,

tends to get very reactive.

I started having more panic attacks.

When I was in my depressed state,

I just slept all day long.

I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop

thinking about it. I self-harmed.

During the vacation between, I guess,

semester one and semester two,

I tried to kill myself.

I had a lot of, I mean, of course,

depression, suicidal thoughts.

Trey Malone took his own life last June.

In his suicide note, Malone wrote

about being sexually abused

while a student at Amherst College

and the school's lack of response.

Men are sexually assaulted.

And typically that is

perpetrated by other men.

And I think for a lot of male survivors

who are sexually assaulted,

it challenges many beliefs

that they have about themselves.

Men aren't supposed to become vulnerable.

They always say, "You allowed

yourself to do it. Why did you do it?

Why didn't you fight them off?"

Men have to be strong, and men

wouldn't let this happen to them.

Because of the emphasis there is

on it being a crime against females,

men feel less comfortable

coming forward with it.

Reporting rates amongst men

are just so infinitesimal

that it actually makes it very hard

to do research on this,

let alone to get a real understanding

of the scope of the problem.

You are built

from the ground as a Tar Heel...

as a member of a community

that is so much bigger than you.

I was directly going against it.

Tonight the U.S. Department of Education

has launched its own investigation

into how UNC Chapel Hill has been handling

sexual assault cases on campus.

It wasn't until we filed the

complaint that the retaliation started.

And it's been bad.

I've gotten death threats,

I've gotten rape threats.

Of course, Internet trolls

are always there.

But I had one in-person threat,

which was kind of scary. Um...

"Bang-bang, b*tch. Die. "

My residence hall was broken into,

and it was completely vandalized.

Spray paint everywhere,

a knife was left behind.

And messages were painted all over.

I felt like

I was in danger all the time,

and that's what I thought of

when I went to classes.

I went, you know,

from being valedictorian in high school

and then, you know,

struggling to finish my classes.

And not knowing how to tell my parents,

which I never did.

Can you talk a little bit

about what it was like

when your parents found out?

- They still don't know.

- They still don't know.

Yeah. Um...

I thought about telling them

many, many times.

And I didn't tell my parents

until a couple days later,

which was probably, like, the hardest

thing I've ever had to do, ever.

Um...

- Now I'm gonna start crying.

- It's okay, you can cry.

- You don't have to hold it in.

- Like, I remember Skyping my dad...

What worries you

about telling them?

The conversation afterwards.

I worry that they'd

look at me differently.

I'm worried that they'd want

to talk about it again.

And just the fact

that they would know.

That it would just be there in their minds

when they looked at me.

Just to hear my mom's voice on the phone,

her feeling so helpless in that moment,

is probably one of the worst aspects

of this entire ordeal,

which probably makes me

the most angry at my assailant.

My mom was on the plane

the next day after I told her.

My dad, he wears

his Notre Dame ring every day.

I've never seen him take it off, and

he didn't... he wasn't wearing it anymore.

His finger that has

a permanent mark from his ring

didn't have his ring on.

And it just...

It was even more heartbreaking

for me to watch my dad.

I call her from a thousand miles away

and tell her this.

And I just wanted

her to be there.

Lizzy always had this big,

beautiful, radiant smile.

It was electric, and it... it... it

made other people happy.

We had 11 family members

attend Notre Dame

and two family members, including Lizzy,

that went to Saint Mary's.

And she, I think, really felt affirmed

that this was the right choice.

She was really,

really happy to be there.

And a little bit of chicken fry

She went over

on August 31st with a friend

to attend an activities fair

at Notre Dame,

and that evening they went back

to, um, this football player's room.

It was four of 'em in there.

The football player and his friend

and Lizzy and her friend.

And... And, um...

I guess, rather suddenly,

the... the... the other two left the room

and left Lizzy alone

with this football player.

And then he basically jumps her.

He pulls her on top of him

and... and removes her shirt,

um, and bra,

and then also begins to try

to take off her pants.

And the next day Lizzy reports.

It never crossed our mind

that they wouldn't do right.

The accused, they couldn't find him.

They had difficulty locating him.

Everyone knows where this individual is.

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