posted by catherine / August 31, 2005 /
5 comments /
ugh. via amanda, read an older hook article on how uva deals with rape. (hint: they punish honor code offenders much more strictly than rapists.) because, you know, rape, whatever, but don't you dare plagiarize that english paper!
UPDATE: WHAT. THE. FUCK.:
Kathryn Russell also believes UVA's process is grievously flawed. After her attack in February 2004, Russell says, she had to make repeated calls to Dean of Students Penny Rue's office before a hearing was scheduled. She says Rue delayed her request by, among other things, suggesting she enter mediation with her alleged attacker.
"I wanted him out of school," says Russell. "What did I have to mediate?"
Her Sexual Assault Board hearing brought her no satisfaction. After listening to hours of testimony and deliberating for three hours, the board returned a not guilty verdict against Russell's alleged attacker. The board offered no explanation, she says, nor did the school ever offer her any services after the trial.
Russell says they told the man she accused, "We believe you made a bad choice that night."
"I felt like I was drowning," she says, "the whole thing was so futile. So many months of my life, so much torture for nothing."
Her mother criticizes the training of representatives to the Board-- or lack thereof.
According to University literature, Board members receive special training, but Susan Russell's Freedom of Information Act request found that preparation to serve on the panel consists of a single session of "adjudication training."
"They don't have a good understanding of victims' psychology," she says.
Hylton agrees. She says Dean Rue also attempted to deter her from pursuing charges and characterized the Sexual Assault Board hearing process as being "about education, not punishment." Russell says Rue's first question to her daughter was, "Are you embarrassed?"