"We Will Not Be Silenced": Students Denounce Rape at Columbia as Schools Face Scrutiny for Inaction
TRIGGER WARNING--sexual assault:
"We Will Not Be Silenced": Students Denounce Rape at Columbia as Schools Face Scrutiny for Inaction
Hundreds of students turned out for a rally at Columbia University in New York City on Friday bearing mattresses and chanting "carry that weight," a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must shoulder each day. Some wore red tape over their mouths to symbolize the harms done by Columbia’s bureaucratic handling of sexual assault. Earlier this month, Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz announced she would carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. We play excerpts from Friday’s rally and speak to Sulkowicz and fellow Columbia University senior Zoe Ridolfi-Starr. She was also sexually assaulted at Columbia in 2012. She is the lead complainant in a federal complaint against Columbia over its handling of sexual assault.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re speaking with Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University senior who says she’ll carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. Emma Sulkowicz is not alone. On Friday, hundreds of students turned out to a rally carrying mattresses of their own, chanting "Carry that weight!" a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must carry each day. In front of Low Library at Columbia University in a speak-out that lasted hours, many shared stories of violence, injustice and healing. This is just some of their voices.
STUDENTS: Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight!
SIERRA: Sierra. I’m a freshman here at Columbia. And for the past two weeks, I’ve been meeting with deans and advisers in different environments, and they’ve been telling me how they can help me get a job, how they can help me study abroad. How are you going to help end sexual assault on my campus? Why is it more likely for me to be raped at this college than it was for me to get into this college?
ALICE: My name is Alice. I’m a junior at Barnard. To graduate from Columbia College, you need to pass a swim test or take a beginner’s swim class. I don’t get why Columbia’s administration doesn’t uphold consent—enthusiastic, continuous, retractable, noncoerced consent—as a Columbia requirement. My assaulter graduated. My friend’s rapist graduated. I guess not being a rapist isn’t a graduation requirement, unlike knowing how to swim. Knowing how to breast stroke for three laps isn’t going to keep me from drowning when I see my rapists on campus or their name on a class roster or when you run into them in an elevator. Columbia, where rapists walk away with diplomas, but you can’t graduate unless you pass the swim test.
DOROTHY: Hi, I’m Dorothy. I’m a freshman. I’ve been on this campus for two weeks, and I was sexually assaulted six days ago. And no one tells you where to go from there, so...
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http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/16/we_will_not_be_silenced_students
