Barrack Obscumbo smoked immense amounts of marijuana while he was on the rosters at Occidental -- but he didnt attend anything I dont think
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That's not good enough for critics, who point to what happened last fall. "The term 'too pushy' came up," alleges Caroline Heldman, an assistant professor of sociology who was involved in Dirks' effort, in describing a September 2012 meeting with dean of students Avery. Heldman says Avery told her, "I admit my staff has been basically rejecting all of your ideas because faculty are too pushy on this issue."
At that time, the position of the school's brass appeared to be that the mostly female victims were exaggerating a sexual encounter they allowed to unfold, or wrongly describing aggressive sexual play during drinking.
Veitch tells the Weekly he's been giving the college's past handling of such incidents "a lot of thought. I think I was slow to respond initially. In truth, I thought I was doing the right thing."
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Occidental professor Caroline Heldman: "The term 'too pushy' came up."
PHOTO BY RICCARDO SAVI
Attorney Gloria Allred: "If alumni know ... that may affect fundraising."
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For many, that's a disturbing take on alleged sexual assault at this 125-year-old bastion of progressive thinking, which prides itself on its Presbyterian founders' liberal agenda and thirst for knowledge. The peaceful, 120-acre campus is lined with lush trees; a tranquil, green quad sits at its entrance. With about 2,100 students, the school is known for annual traditions such as a neighborhood birthday party and a water balloon fight pitting seniors against the college president.
Yet evidence suggests that officials' reluctance to take action on rape allegations allowed a criminal and social problem to become a crisis, creating potentially profound legal and political problems, and something equally foreign to Occidental — a permeating sense of distrust and unease.
When Carly Mee, now 22, finally decided in her junior year to report a sexual assault she says happened when she was a freshman, she says she was told that she was mistaken in thinking her assailant capable of rape.
"When I spoke to an administrator," she says, refusing to name the female official, "I said, 'I've been feeling really unsafe and worried that he will attack me again,' and she told me that she met with him and didn't feel like that was something he would do, so I didn't have to worry."
Mee's alleged assailant, incredibly, was the same male student who attacked Capranica. He was found by Occidental, in secret proceedings, to have been responsible for attacking Mee. The unidentified male, whom Mee refuses to publicly name out of fear, was suspended but not expelled.
"When I met with an administrator to ask why" he wasn't expelled, Mee says, "they said it was 'extraordinary circumstances,' and that it was a 'messy case.' "
Audrey Logan, now 22, mustered the courage in her sophomore year to report that she had been raped on two separate occasions in her freshman year — by a young man she considered a friend. She says the administration made repeated errors in handling her report, yet her assailant admitted he assaulted her.
"It wasn't a situation where someone says something happened and the other person says nothing happened and then they're trying to figure out who's telling the truth," Logan says. "It was an agreement on the events, and then the administration trying to figure out if that 'violated' the sexual-assault policy."
Logan's assailant was found by Occidental, in closed-door proceedings, to have attacked her. He was expelled. Logan refuses to name him publicly after, she says, having faced retaliation from her social circle for pursuing a case against him.
According to Logan, administrators asked her to consider a settlement that might allow her assailant to return to school. She refused.
"I felt like I personally cared more about the safety of this community than a lot of the administrators," she says.
Despite the recurrent themes in these cases, it wasn't until this February that brewing anger over complaints about sexual assault at Oxy came to a head. One night, while walking near campus, an Occidental student was raped. This time the incident wasn't stifled by Oxy's leaders or by a traumatized victim — it was reported to LAPD.
Rather than hear first from school officials about the attack, the campus community learned of the crime from CBS2 News. The local news channel reported that the incident occurred at about midnight on Feb. 24 in the 4900 block of Range View Avenue, which leads directly into campus. "People were upset," says Ryan Meltzer, a 21-year-old track and field athlete at Oxy. "Students were responding, [asking] how did the news get to this first?"
From there, pent-up stories of rapes and other sexual assaults began to snowball. Reports of sexual assault on or near the campus flooded the college's crime log; in the two months following the February attack, 45 incidents of sexual violence were reported, some dating to 2010.
"Numbers will be extremely high this year," Dirks says, "but they will be more accurate."
Though some may find it startling, under state and federal law, colleges and universities are not required to report rape to the police, unless the alleged victim is a minor. The responsibility falls on the adult victim, but many — like Capranica, Logan and Mee — are extremely reluctant to go public.
LAPD's data starkly reflect this fact: Despite the 45 incidents now in the college's crime log, Detective Lina Teague, LAPD's sexual-assault coordinator at the Northeast Division, which serves Eagle Rock, notes that only three rapes involving Occidental students have been reported to LAPD in the past two years.
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251 comments
On the surface, reporting the rape to police seems like the logical thing to do,
until you find out about how people who report rape are treated. It makes perfect sense to me that students would go to the college
administrators before the police, and I don't see how you could call meeting
with someone privately a "public act." I am a rape survivor and have actually been discouraged from going to the police by rape counselors because, most of the time, dealing with a police investigation when you don't have DNA evidence or a witness only adds to the trauma. First you have to deal with being interrogated, and if the case makes it to court, you have to go through this humiliating, incredibly personal violation in excruciating detail and have every aspect questioned, and your credibility shot through at every turn--all in a public trial by jury.
Someone I know reported her brutal rape to police, and they treated her like a criminal. She was interrogated for four solid hours, where they yelled at her, called her a liar, and in the end, traumatized her over again. Her case never went to court due to lack of evidence, the rapist got off scot-free and continues to teach at the institution at which he assaulted her, and she ended up having to leave her college because of retaliation from faculty. That was over a decade and a half ago and it still haunts her. So you really can't judge the victims for not reporting immediately, nor can you say, "if I had been raped, I would have done X," because unless you've actually gone through that trauma--which stays with you for the rest of your life, and changes you in ways that you would never have imagined--you simply don't know what you're talking about.
Students are afraid to report to police because they want to go public yet they report to college administrators, which is a public act - That reasoning is illogical
The other problem I have is with the closed courts make it open -
Not condoning any bad behavior, but many people do get drunk and make choices they never would have if sober and regret it - In these cases it is so easy for a women to accuse a man out of feelings of regret after drunken sex - This can not be dismissed and is unfair to men who have to prove innocence
That said if a young women is raped call the police and have the bastard arrested asap - That protects everyone - If I was raped that is what I would do I would not contact a school official
The answer is: report these assaults to the police immediately!! Of course no one can really do anything about a rape reported (to the school, not even to the police) years after the fact. I know it's upsetting and very hard to do, but if these young women want things to change they MUST be willing to involve law enforcement right away. The school couldn't do these cover up actions if the police were involved.
In 2003, I was raped at Colorado State University. I went the next day to get checked out and get a morning after pill from the school's health center. At that point in time, I was not planning on reporting the incident. After hours of keeping me at the health center, the school basically talked me into filing a police report. Once filed CSU police told me that since I am a student, but it happened off campus I needed to be in contact with the local police as well. The school transferred my case to the Fort Collins Police Department. During the case transfer, all of the evidence pertaining to my rape just somehow disappeared. This included semen stained clothing and sheets, as well as pictures of my injuries. Since there was no evidence, the Fort Collins police department told me the only way they could prosecute him was if he admitted what he did wrong. Of course he didn't and I my case was brushed aside. After years of therapy, I have moved passed the actual rape, but not how the police handled it. I already went through such a tramatic and demeaning experience that I still cannot believe the police (aka the people there to protect me) handled things so poorly. College campuses really need to work on curbing this epidemic and doing something more to help the victims. Ten years later and I am still not ok with how I was treated.
It is disgusting that schools like Oxy & Penn State are more concerned about the schools reputation than the safety & well being of the youth that visit or attend their schools. God bless all of you victims.
Lots of false accusations of rape out there. How do we know what happened if she never filed a report. Did she regret sleeping with the guy, drink too much and black out? There's more to the story but women's victimization is a very powerful story.
yea this is pretty creepy too https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151588052074681&set=a.10150684058959681.417379.36563149680&type=1
whereas if no one had argued with you, we would have magically gained the ability to teleport ourselves to exactly where those rapes were happening and interfere. or.....something? and I'm sure we would be expected to be doing this 24/7. no arguing on the internet for us, for sure.
It's irresponsible to place such a harsh burden on men who have never committed a sex crime or will ever commit one. It's creates a unrealistic perception of people which can become a stereotype. I don't want all men to be stereotyped as rapists.
perhaps this conversation would move along better if you did it front of a mirror? it is all about you after all...
"your discomfort over reasonable fears" =/= RAPE or RAPE CULTURE (i.e. blaming rape victims for rape, etc.). really dude? also "causing Goyo (or even all men) discomfort" is such a weird definition of "irresponsible" that it is just...baffling.
I love the hypocrisy of all of your arguments. You claim that I am selfish yet you keep talking to me. If you don't want this to be about mr then stop talking about me.
I "love" how to Goyo, "dangerous" means "might make women a little more suspicious of me and other men." Stakes are a bit higher for some of us, buddy.
And in the time it tool you guys to argue with me more females were raped. Nothing was resolved
it is certainly relevant to the topic. whether you needed or wanted to know is what's irrelevant, and it's adorable that you think anyone cares.
wow...knowing this much about a stranger? do you have any idea how many women are raped? seriously. it is not a unique experience, unfortunately. also, good. sit with that discomfort, maybe. do you think you would feel the same way about hearing from a victim of a different violent crime? might you actually have some...I don't know, sympathy? at least enough to realize how fucked up it would be to tell them that you weren't "comfortable knowing this much about" them? I "wonder."
Goyo is still wallowing in self-pity and an undeserved sense of victimhood? Talk about issues, making a cover that he himself didn't like on the systematic, pernicious cover up of rapes on UC campuses about him. That is some A grade narcissism right there. He should be grateful, all this attention for someone too lazy to read an article. He must have been similarly indulged at home.
Okay. And you have been rude , condescending, and trying to preach to me about things I already know. I'm sorry that you redundant tirades are cumbersome. You tell me to read sexist literature and get mad when I don't agree with your point of view. You think that because you were raped I automatically have to bow down to you. You're not better than anyone. Get off your high horse.
and he does it one more time. you are on a roll! you have yet to attempt peace. you have tried to derail, speak over me, speak for me, deny my experiences, and then tried to shame me when i shared experiences. but kudos for effort, eh?
@mcuvillier One last thing. After a severe trauma, your brain does very strange things. You may tell yourself now, "If I get raped, I'm going to report it to police," but if that actually happens to you (which truly I hope it never does) you may be so overwhelmed that it just doesn't occur to you. It's hard to explain exactly what you go through after something like that. Instead of judgmental finger-wagging towards the victims for not seeking justice the way you believe they should have, why not try to look at it from their perspective and consider why they did what they did?
@mcuvillier How is meeting in private with a school administrator a "public act??"
Also, these aren't just cases of girls having drunk-sex and then regretting it later, these are cases in which repeat offenders have targeted multiple students. One of the assailants even admitted to the rape, and he was allowed to return to campus. Which is INSANE on the school's part. What does this tell people? That at Occidental college, you can rape someone and get less punishment than if you had cheated on an exam or been caught smoking weed on campus?
Last thing--keep in mind how many people have been raped in the United States vs how many of those actually see any justice happen. The statistics vary, but according to various sources referred to by the Huffington Post, around 300,000 Americans are raped every year, and 1 in 5 women have been sexually assaulted in some way. And that's only the ones that report. It's estimated that 54% of rapes go unreported, and an astonishing 97% of rapists are NEVER incarcerated. Even if a man is falsely accused of rape, his chances of being found guilty are practically nil. That's great if you've been wrongly accused, I guess, but it's awful if you're a rape survivor who just wants your attacker behind bars so he can't hurt anyone else, but will never see that happen because you don't have evidence or witnesses. The justice system, unfortunately, does not favor justice in the case of sex crimes. Even if there is DNA evidence, lots of rape kits in the US are just sitting around untested. Rape is such a complicated thing that, unfortunately, it can be nearly impossible to prove.
@Patriarchy_works Please back up your assertions. Show us a single case in which an individual falsely accused of rape gets found guilty. Just FYI, 97% of rapists never do a single day of time.
Patriarchy only works if you're a patriarch.
@Patriarchy_works So, if she drank to much, she deserved to be raped, is that how you treat the women in your life? So, if your daughter drank to much, she deserves to be raped. That's sick! "Lots of false accusations" BS.
@Patriarchy_works That is why the school should not discourage victims from making police reports. Without an adequate investigation, no one knows.
@trobairitz @Patriarchy_works YOu are so full of dated and overused feminist garbage its stinks up the web page! Patriarchy works?? Look at the several FEMALE COMMUNIST representatives from California who do not represent those things that are pertinent and relevant to the nation or to this state - only to the communist agenda that you are too young to know anything about - It isnt patriarchy its a system that is contrary to our American Traditions and forma of Governance - You wont hear this at Oxy or from any liberal professor or otherwise!
she does not deserved to be raped - but what abut drunk people who make bad decisions and regret it the next day get mad and blame the other person for what happened - It does happen - That is why reporting should be done asap to the police
@trobairitz The politics that inspires one to use a moniker Patriarchy works reveals the politics where your buddy and perhaps you may be stranded reveals where at least one of your two minds are stuck (and thus your age.) I'll challenge your degrees and GPAs against mine any day - I happen to know all about Liberal professors - I am a Conservative Professor and the women that we have in office is precisely the direction that my message pointed you towards -- you didnt listen. If you can not understand the context between California electeds and Communists then I am not the least embarrassed. This generation is lost because it pretends to possess all the answers without having accumulated any knowledge, practical experiences or life skills.
"Creeeepy?" you comes off as an immature kid.
@c.carlos.ramos @trobairitz @Patriarchy_works
Your response is nonsensical and unwarranted. I'm only quoting statistics from, among other places, the CDC and Department of Justice. If you have a problem with it, you can take it up with them. And I only shared my and my friend's personal experiences. "Patriarchy works" is the username of the person I was responding to.
Judging by your sweeping generalization about universities, "liberal professors," and state representatives being part of the Communists agenda, I think it's safe to assume you are stuck in the McCarthy era, and never went to college. Well, take a deep breath and count to ten. It's 2013, we have women in office, and the Ruskis are not coming to get you.
Now please quit embarrassing yourself and take your Thorazine.
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