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2007 UPDATE: We have
noticed several personnel changes at UVA over the past two
years, to include key staff members who made life hell for victims
of sexual assault. Is it possible that their lack of
professionalism was noted "in house" and dealt with? The most
notable departures include:
Dean Shamin Sisson - Retired Unexpectedly
Dean Penny Rue - Relocated to UC in San Diego
Police Chief Paul Norris - Resigned Unexpectedly to take a job out
of State
And a few of the others, who covered up the facts, were promoted:
Lt Gibson - Promoted to Police
Chief at UVA
Det Mike Marshall - now
Police Chief at VMI
SAB Panel Member "Jane Doe" - now personal assistant to President
Casteen
(we do not reveal
SAB Panel member names) |
WHY THIS SITE? My daughter was
sexually assaulted in her UVA dorm room by a man she
was not dating or interested in. The University mandated that she use a weak
administrative process to handle this crime of sexual assault. No other type of
crime committed on grounds is trivialized in this manner. It is
unacceptable for us to allow FELONY CRIME to be handled as an
administrative matter! How could I
stand by and watch this injustice being inflicted upon my daughter? I had to create this site:
 | Because my daughter was
sexually assaulted in her dorm room by a man she did not want to
be with - not that night, not any night. He had been in her room
for less than 5 minutes before the assault began. She was not
on a date, yet the school classifies her assault as acquaintance
rape because she knew this man from a class they had both been in. He entered her
room uninvited and with the intent to overpower her - and he succeeded.
He targeted her at an event earlier that evening and decided to
himself that she would be his chosen one that night. He is not
just a "cad", or an "opportunistic young man", or a "sleazy guy"
who "got lucky" at the end of a date -
he is a young man with signs of predatory deviant behavior. He may have
wealthy parents, nice clothes, and good grades. But he is what he
is - a rapist. I make this statement because she was not
his first forced assault, and unfortunately, she was not his last.
It is more important for UVA to protect their reputation that to
protect their female students.
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| Because the University
Police mishandled the case. It has been suggested that
matters of sexual assault should be left to the University and
Charlottesville police departments and the court system. In theory
that's the way it should be handled. However, the Charlottesville
Police cannot make arrests when the crime occurs on campus;
the Faulkner dorms are on Federal Property and fall within the
responsibility of the University Police. In my opinion, the
University Police are not trained or equipped to handle these type
of cases. The Detective assigned to the case allowed
ten
days to pass between the time my daughter reported the
rape to the UVA Police and the actual police interview of the
young man.
If local police waited ten days, citizens would demand an
inquiry; my daughter walked the campus in fear for 10 days before
he was even interviewed. This Detective failed to follow up on the simplest of details.
Because I felt that my daughter’s case had been mishandled; I
wrote Pres Casteen and requested that he conduct an internal
review. He has refused.
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| Because the University
Hospital ER failed to follow standard procedures: The UVA Emergency
Room did not follow proper protocol for the examination/support of
a rape victim. A SANE nurse was not contacted and important tests
were not conducted. In a rebuttal,
the University stated that my daughter did not ask for the tests. How would she know
what tests to ask for?
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| Because the Dean of
Students stalled the case and tried to influence my daughter not
to go forward with her complaint. Sixty days after my
daughter contacted the Dean of Students' Office, an investigation
had not yet been initiated. The public support of this website
pressured the Dean to do what my daughter requested, however, she
was reluctant. She did nothing to
support my daughter in this crisis, and all that she could to
protect this man from facing charges. He has since been arrested
twice on other unrelated charges: in Sept 04 for
Obstruction of Justice (providing false information to a police
officer- lying to a law enforcement officer during an
investigation to thwart the investigation is apparently not a
violation of the Honor Code) and in Nov 04 for Public Swearing and Intoxication, and
investigated for yet another rape
charge.
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Because my daughter was a not only the victim of a crime, she
was a victim of the Dean's inability to address the diversity
issues swelling on campus. This former high
school lacrosse player was running for Student Council President
at the time he raped my daughter. The University simply did not
want to deal with this crime during the campus elections. My
daughter became a victim of the Administration's inability to
address the diversity issues swelling on campus. They were
afraid to pull a 6'2" athletic Black man out of the elections for assaulting a
5'2" small-framed white female in her dorm room. The Administration
failed to take appropriate action for fear of media coverage at a
time when they were trying to repair race relations. The Black
Detective assigned to the case also assisted the administration in
keeping this issue quiet by telling the young man during the
interview, "Don't worry. This can be handled as an administrative
matter." The Black University Police Chief refused to accept any
of my calls or return e-mails when I asked, then begged, him to
review the Detective's lack of professional standard during the
investigation. For 2 years this website provided no hint of detail
about the parties involved,
but the media reaction to the Duke scandal has now brought us to
the point where we feel we must explain that this was not a "white
on white" crime. Enough said - let's not lose focus - this website
is about the University's failure to prosecute sexual assault
crimes, regardless of the color of the predator or victim.
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| Because the Sexual
Assault Coordinator did not provide assistance to my daughter at
any time. How unbelievable it is that the Sexual
Assault Coordinator didn't assist my daughter after her sexual
assault - it's like a fireman not responding to a fire, don't you
think? The University needs to stop using FERPA as a shield for
their failure to aid victims and come into full compliance with
the Clery Act and Title IX laws.
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| Because the Sexual
Assault Board is a joke. Unless you are a victim, you
would not know what a joke the SAB truly is. The SAB began at 9:30
am and ended at 9:45pm. It's a joke because the victim must face
her attacker and defend herself (does that ever happen in civil
court?). She is not allowed to have family or friends in the room
for support. She is not allowed to respond to untruthful testimony
or innuendoes made by the accused.
Perhaps an Honor trial is run professionally, but the SAB is an
unfair, biased process designed to deter victims from following
through with a trial. A Freedom of Information
Act request confirmed that the panel was not trained in sexual assault awareness nor had they been trained in victim
post-traumatic stress disorder. The Panel Chair limited the
evidence my daughter could present but allowed the young man to
spontaneously introduce evidence throughout the procedure. The
Panel Chair was not without prejudice. The panel was instructed to use the higher Standard of Proof of
"Clear and Convincing" for a finding of guilty, which is a
violation of Title IX Federal law. The panel chair advised my
daughter that she would face Honor Charges if she publicly spoke
about the trial or the results, a direct violation of the Clery
Act.
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| Because the University is
supposedly a Community of Trust. Two
girls have come forward and told my daughter that each of them has
a friend who had also been assaulted by this man. Supposedly
"everyone knows" but no one is willing to tell this to the Police
or the Dean. Students are intimidated and afraid. Although the
Honor Code does not allow intimidation, it occurs and no one
challenges it. |
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Because the University
openly ignores the federal laws set forth in the Clery Act and Title IX.
Students and parents affected by this do not have the fortitude to
challenge the University's arrogance and non-compliance of the
law.
The Administration would rather expend energy and
funds on a cover-up rather than make the campus a safer
environment for students. One of the provisions in the Clery Act
requires the university to notify all students through webmail
that a crime has occurred/been reported. Rarely does UVA adhere to
this law. However, a small victory was achieved in the revision of
the Confidentiality Clause after media publicity exposed the fact
that two written
complaints had been forwarded to the Dept of Education citing
Clery Act violations. A determination on Title IX violations
is expected to be released in 2006. In addition, I requested that
she be moved to another room so that she was not sleeping in the
same room and bed where she was raped; the University refused even
though there was an EMPTY BEDROOM in her campus apartment!
The University failed to assist my daughter with course
extensions. She was never advised that she could take a medical
leave of absence due to the trauma she experienced. The Campus
Security Act states that schools must reassign a victim to another
room so that the victim can begin to feel safe and that they must
provide an advisor to assist with coursework and mediate
extensions/withdrawals with professors on behalf of the student.
UVA failed to do either.
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| Because the University owes
my daughter an apology for putting her through hell.
The Administration has publicly apologized to a
student for not providing enough support to her after she found a
racial slur written on her car in honey, but they have stated they
will NOT publicly apologize to my daughter for not providing
enough support to her after she had been sexually assaulted. They
don't need to identify all the women by name whose lives have been
altered, but they certainly owe her and all the other women who have been assaulted
on the UVA campus a public apology
and an acknowledgement that their system is flawed. Anything less is
unacceptable.
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| Because history repeats
itself.
If the University reacted properly, young
female students would not be in jeopardy of becoming a UVA victim of
rape. If the University followed the laws, the correct Standard of
Proof would be used in the SAB process and more convictions would
result. |
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Isn't Rape a
Crime?
All victims of crime - regardless
of the type of crime - want to know that everything that can be done IS
being done by University Administration and Police so that no one ever
has to experience the humiliation, anger, and fear that results from
being a victim of crime. We cannot prioritize which crimes to address
now and which to address later - there should be zero tolerance for any
crime committed upon a member of the UVA Community, no exceptions!
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The
February 16, 2005 issue of the Cavalier Daily reported:
"Student Council President Noah Sullivan spoke to the University
Judiciary Committee last night advocating a proposed ballot referendum
on hate crimes. The new referendum, is worded slightly differently than
the referendum rejected by the Student Council last week, would be a
general question asking whether the students would support harsher UJC
penalties for crimes motivated by hate. "It's a pulse check on the
student body," Sullivan said. Sullivan said creating harsher sanctions
for hate crimes would serve two purposes -- to act as a deterrent for
future crimes and to assert a community standard on the issue. "We
are trying to find the best way to codify the idea that hate crimes are
a more serious assault on the community than regular crimes," Sullivan
said.
Noah, what is a "regular" crime?
Physical Assault? Rape?
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Policy changes at the
University will occur only when students organize themselves and
pressure the institution into recognizing and confronting this long
ignored issue. University administrators do almost nothing about rape to
avoid bad publicity and to keep from embarrassing their consumers
(students and parents) and wealthy donors (alumni and corporations).
By
failing to respond adequately to sexual assault, the University is
sending the message that sexual
assault is acceptable.
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Statistics prove that every one-in-four campus women are
assaulted, yet very few cases are taken to a Sexual Assault Board. At a campus meeting held on 25 March 2004, it
was confirmed by University Staff that no one found guilty of sexual assault in the past
five years has been suspended or expelled from the University.
Most rape cases are kept within the jurisdiction of the school and
"deals" are made during Sexual Assault Board hearings to let the accused
"off the hook", such as Mediation or withdrawal until the victim
graduates. When debating the topic of rape, we must begin by asking this
question: Is this conduct appropriate and acceptable within the campus
Community? Using an administrative solution to resolve and deter
criminal actions is unacceptable.
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Campus Police
are not adequately staffed or trained to conduct crime investigations such
as simple assault, rape, or murder. Failure of
the Commonwealth Attorney to prosecute does not equate to a finding of not-guilty.
It simply means that the Commonwealth is not 100% sure they will obtain a
conviction using the criminal Standard of Proof "Beyond a reasonable
Doubt". The victim still has the option to pursue civil litigation; the
Standard of Proof for a finding of guilt at this level is a "Preponderance
of Evidence".
Rape should not be confused with sex.
Rape is not about being ambiguous when providing consent for sex. Rape is
not about a regrettable night of sex. Rape is an act of empowerment. Rape
is a crime. The College must react to a report of rape as it would to any
other crime. Unfortunately, many students and College staff appear to
believe that rape is about sex and alcohol consumption. Until they
understand the complexities of this crime, no progress will ever be made
to resolve this issue on their campus.
How can you help?
| Become Involved. Insist that the University have a
response procedure in place for Sexual Assault. |
| Write letters to the Cavalier Daily, the Dean of
Student Affairs, and the Board of Visitors. Tell them that you are outraged that the
University will not remove predators from your campus. |
| Listen to your friends who are victims. Allow them
time to heal. |
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This website was
created to inform
Parents, Students, and Alumni about the
University of Virginia's ineffective response to the crime
of sexual assault. Support
"ZERO TOLERANCE FOR RAPE!"
Alumnae and Undergrads:
We are seeking information on the following:
1) Witnesses for a pending lawsuit that involves a UVA
Alumni. If you (or someone you know) were made to have non-consensual sex with
the male pictured on the homepage anytime during 2003-2006, you
may be able to provide key evidence for an upcoming civil trial.
2) Survivors - Did you take your case to the Albemarle Commonwealth
Attorney Rick Moore, only to be turned away? Were you upset by any of the comments
made to you by the Police or Commonwealth Attorney's office? During a Take
Back the Night Rally, several women shared comments about the comments
made to them by these offices. We'd
like to chat with these women and explore the similar way the cases have
been handled.
Contact us
immediately because IF YOU STAY SILENT, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. ALL
comments and tips will be treated with complete anonymity. Send your
e-mail to
uvarape@cox.net.
It's the right thing to do.
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Contact
uvarape@cox.net
Created to support all UVA Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault.
Site Information last updated on 30
Aug 2007.
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