Considering one out of every five girls are sexually assaulted, there are a lot of stories

out there about these victims experiences. They vary from moderate to extreme
circumstances. In order to better understand the severity of this issue, I have
researched testimonies of college age sexual assault victims. I have chosen a few that
show the different types of circumstances that are involved in each instance.
At Queens University, in Charlotte, North Carolina, a girl named Sarah* was
invited to watch a movie with a friend of hers, Cody*(Brown). Cody and Sarah hadn't
been friends for long, but Cody had a girlfriend, so Sarah assumed that this would be a
friendly hang out. As they began the movie, Cody started to kiss Sarah. Sarah did not
reject the kiss, but she did not give off any signals that showed Cody that she wanted
him to kiss her. Moments later, Cody began to take Sarah's clothes off. Sarah
said, "No, please stop" but he replied, "No, you'll like it." As Cody
began to forcefully have sex with Sarah, she asked about a condom. He then let go of
her. Immediately, Sarah took the freedom to confront Cody about what he had just
done. Cody claimed that what had just happened was not rape. Sarah said, "I told you
that I did not want your penis in my vagina, and that is what just happened." Later on in
the school year, they were enrolled in the same science class. When Sarah saw that he
was in the class, she immediately withdrew from the class and opted to take it online
instead. Cody still tried to contact her via social media, but Sarah never replied. When
Sarah told her mom about this incident, her mom thought that it would add too much
stress into Sarah's life if she reported it. Sarah was forced to keep quiet and to let the
situation pass.
At a community college in Illinois, a softball player, Emma*, was having a party at
her apartment for athletes (Anderson). A basketball player that she didn't know started
flirting with her. They began drinking vodka together and his flirting turned into very
persistent actions. They were in a crowd of about 40 people, and while she wasn't into
him, she didn't think that his flirting was a big deal. Things began to get blurry for Emma
and then all at once she blacked out. Emma woke up the next morning covered in
bruises, with a sore body, and unable to piece together the nights events. As she asked
around, some of her friends were able to fill her in on some of the details. Emma

"I was taken to my own bathroom and apparently

I had sex." Emma's biggest disappointment was her friends lack of involvement in
stated,

helping her. She had hoped that her friends and teammates would have looked out for
her and stopped the man, instead of laughing at the situation. In recalling the event,
Emma said, "I

thought I was under the influence with

people I could trust." Due to the party being off campus, Emma felt that
she couldnt report it to the campus police, so her story remained unreported. Her coach
was also uninformed because Emma feared the drama that would ensue if she chose to
tell an adult about it. Emma lost a few friends because of their lack of loyalty, and she
avoided the man who raped her at all costs. Now that Emma is older and can learn from
the experience, she has taken younger students under her wing and tries to ensure that
something like that never happens to them.

Vanderbilt University is home to a college student, Zoe*, who had an experience

that changed her life forever. Zoe and her dance team arrived at the Tin Roof Bar on
June 23, 2013 to hang out and have a few drinks together (Barchenger). Zoe ran into a
guy, Vandenburg, she had known for a few weeks and had dated. He had bought her
three drinks and a fourth blue drink from which she only sipped. When testifying, Zoe
states "I

don't remember anything after I drank the blue

drink." The next day, Zoe woke up on the dorm room floor of Vandenberg and he
told her that she got extremely drunk and he had to take care of her all night long. She
was embarrassed and she felt bad so she kept apologizing to Vandenberg for putting
him through a night like that. However, after police recommending her to have a medical
exam, she decided to. The results warranted an investigation by the police. After videos
being found on several guys cell phones, the truth about that night was revealed.
After drinking the blue drink, Zoe was taken by Vandenberg and three of his
teammates to Vandenbergs dorm room. The men involved were Vandenberg,
McKenzie, Batey, and Banks. Video evidence was found on Vandenberg, Batey, and
Banks' cell phones. After carrying Zoe up to the room, they laid her face down on the tile
floor. Batey began by undressing Zoe and fingering her. Banks then took up close
pictures of him touching Zoe's vagina. Authorities say someone stuck a water bottle in
the woman's anus while Vandenberg laughed and chanted "squeeze that sh*t!" More
videos showed Batey, who appeared to be penetrating the woman, although it is
unclear if he had an erection or not. Vandenberg and Batey each slapped Zoe in the
face, leaving bruises. It was only after she had been slapped that comments were
made that she could possibly wake up if they continued to slap her. According to
testimony, in attempt to get an erection, Vandenberg used his laptop to watch
pornography and began touching himself. Meanwhile, Batey stuck his penis in Zoe's
mouth, while putting his hand over her face. After, a picture was taken of him flipping off
the camera while his butt was on her face. As if that was not enough, he got back into
position to penetrate her. According to testimony, Batey finished off by urinating on Zoe.
These events lasted 30 minutes.
In order for justice to be reached, this case was taken to court. Zoe had started
out the court case with absolutely no idea of what happened that night, except for what
Vandenberg had told her. "He

told me that I had gotten sick in

his room and he had to clean it up and that it was
horrible and that he had to spend the whole night
taking care of me and it was horrible," she said. "I
apologized. I was embarrassed." The videos were shown to Zoe in
court, where she confidently identified herself. The trial for the men involved is still going
on, but there is no doubt that the case will result in the men being found guilty.
From the testimonies above, it is clear that sexual assault comes in all different
shapes and sizes. However, the bottom line is that it is wrong. Rather the victim chose
to press charges or not, the assault did not end when the girl got away because each

girl carries the weight of the assault with her each day. The point of this post was to give
each reader a glimpse of what these types of situations can look like. Sexual predators
aren't always scary men in a dark alley, they can be friends, boyfriends, or strangers at
a party. My hope is that each of these testimonies will raise awareness and will open up
your eyes to a very prevalent issue on college campuses.
*Names were changed to protect the identity of the victims.

For more testimonies and additional information, click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64iB01oPB3E
http://projectunbreakable.tumblr.com/
Anderson, Nick. "Sexual Assault Survivors Tell Their Stories." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Barchenger, Stacy. "Alleged Vanderbilt Rape Victim: 'That's Me' in Video." The
Tennessean. 7 June 2015. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Brown, Emma. "Sexual Assault Survivors Tell Their Stories." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.