When a Student Confides a Rape, Should a Professor Have to Report It?

[moriah]

133. My circumstances sucked.

I think the emails should have been put up in front of a jury. If they couldn't find him guilty, that'd be one thing, but at least I would have been able to testify, in court, about what my rapist did to me. They were also investigating the rape of a child at the same time, and it was a small town. So small of a town I was afraid that he'd come knocking on my door drunk and angry after being questioned and released. I asked for a no-contact order, they didn't grant one. (I wanted there to be one on file so if I had to shoot the bastard -- since at that time I did have a gun, fat lot of good it did me -- there'd at least be something backing me as to why I was so afraid I felt I had to shoot if he broke into my house.)

But not even being able to testify and give a jury a chance of a finding of guilt or not-guilt.... it really wrecked me emotionally. It put me in the hospital because I was suicidal, making me sell my gun to my sister later when I moved because I didn't trust myself with a firearm after that. I was out of work for over a month in a partial hospitalization program, and so when I caught pneumonia later on that year they had to let me go because I'd used up all my leave time. I'd been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in my 20s, and not only did it cause me to spiral into a deep depression, I also have PTSD as a result of the experience. After four hospitalizations in a year and a half, I was granted disability.

If it hadn't been for that jackass deciding he had a right to my body when I couldn't consent and had already told him prior to taking my first drink that I had no intentions of having sex with him, I'd probably still have a job and not be on the government dole. And that hurts my pride a hell of a lot.

So no, I don't think a whole lot about his "rights". He didn't think much of mine, did he?

As is obvious, if I'm ever called on a jury to decide if a person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property in a sexual assault case, I'll have to recuse myself. But in my opinion, an expulsion deprives one of none of that, and that's the worst punishment that can happen to a rapist under Title IX. It's a fucking joke, those "boards" are, because they keep real cases from the courtroom and encourage victims to keep silent and let the university handle it. Going to university is not a right under the Constitution.