In a November 19, 2015 story, Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely described in horrific detail how a UVA student, given the made up name Jackie, was lured two years earlier by her date into a dark room at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house and brutally raped by seven men. But the Washington Post, and other news outlets, soon discovered inconsistencies in the 9,000-word story, “A Rape on Campus.”
On November 22, the initial response of the story is felt, and outrage spreads as people read and respond to the article. The UVA president Teresa Sullivan suspends all campus fraternities, sororities, and Greek organizations due to community pressure.
On November 24, Richard Bradley, former editor for George magazine, writes an essay, questioning the events of the story, and states that something about the piece didn’t feel right.
On November 28, Erdely describes how she came to write the story. Erdely says that after deciding to write about sexual assault on campus, she spent six weeks talking to students across the country and eventually settled on UVA. She says she was introduced to Jackie by Emily Renda, a leader in UVA 's sexual-assault group and that Jackie was bursting at the seems to get her story out.
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Sean Woods, editor of Rolling Stone states that he is confident that they exist and that their existence has been verified.
On December 5, the Washington Post raises major questions about the inconsistencies of the story and launches an in-house investigation to uncover the truth. That same day, Rolling Stone releases a statement stating that there may have been some discrepancies in the story, and that “there trust in Jackie (the rape victim in the story) was misplaced”
Over the course of the next month, more evidence is brought against the Rolling Stone story, including, the friends in the story coming forward to admit that the guy who had “raped” Jackie was a fabrication, that no attempt was made to contact them, and that the events of the night in question are grossly exaggerated.
On December 22, 2014, the Rolling Stone asks the Columbia Journalism School to conduct an independent review of the story.
Following the investigation launched by UVA president into the story, police find that there is no reason to believe a rape took place at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, and that according to fraternity records, no event had taken place the night of the alleged
Death at a Penn State Fraternity In her 2017 article “Death at a Penn State Fraternity”, Caitlin Flanagan utilizes a plethora of rhetorical devices and strategies to convey her argument that large universities and their respective fraternities must be evaluated and ultimately reformed to prevent incidents similar to the death at Penn State from occurring. Flanagan presents readers with the stunning account of a young, affluent Penn State freshman who suffers and ultimately dies at the hands of his newly acquired “brothers”. Throughout the article, the veteran writer emphasizes the systemic ineptness of many universities to control and improve their fraternal organizations.
The Duke lacrosse case implicated criminal actions of: first degree rape, first degree sex offenses’ and kidnapping charges against three Duke University lacrosse players; Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligman and Dean Evans (North Carolina State Bar v. Nifong, 2007,p.18-20). According to Mosteller (2007) the case started with “gang rape allegations” by Crystal Mangum, a black exotic dancer who was also a student at North Carolina Central University on the morning of March 14th, 2006 (p.1337). The alleged rape occurred during the Duke lacrosse teams’ party at 610 North Buchanan Blvd (North Carolina State Bar v. Nifong, 2007,p.1). Suspiciously Mangum could not make any identifications of her attackers even after viewing most Duke lacrosse team members including the names mentioned above and the lacrosse team members who actually lived at 610 North Buchanan Blvd (Mosteller, 2007, p.1407). Mosteller (2007) also mentions that Mike Nifong had to know that
In “Crime and Punishment: The saga of Richie Parker” published in Sports Illustrated, Gary Smith helps to explain just how many people are affected by a single sexual assault case. He does this in a very unique style by giving 12 sections explaining the incident from different points of view and the effects of a single crime. One person affected was Jill Agostino, the sports copy editor for Newsday. Her unnamed colleague had given her a copy of an article he was writing on Richie Parker and called asking if she liked it. Little did he know, stories like his were keeping her up at night, reminding her of the time she was raped nine years earlier.
On February 7, 1978, the 19-year-old student that attended the College of William and Mary reported that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint. She informed police investigators that on that afternoon she went to her “fiancé’s apartment in Williamsburg, Virginia after her morning class was cancelled. When she attempted to enter the apartment with her arms full of groceries, she was then confronted
1. A student who came to the rescue of UBC assault victim testifies The article explores the witness Adam Casey’s experience when a fellow student, Mary Hare, was being assaulted in her dorm. During a chief examination, he stated his actions throughout the whole ordeal. Several panicked women rushed into the residence’s common building and reported the issue, Adam Casey, asked if they’d called 911 and the women responded that they had then he ran to where the assault was occurring.
In the article “Death at a Penn State Fraternity” by Caitlin Flanagan, the tragic story of Beta Theta Pi pledge Timothy Piazza’s last moments are recounted in great detail. Throughout the analysis of the situation, Flanagan subjects her audience to a substantial amount of heartbreaking details, as well as her opinion and speculation. Flanagan’s purpose in her writing of this article is to display the message that fraternity hazing is apart of a much greater problem in the fraternal system. She does this in a number of ways, including her interviews with other frat brothers such as Kordel Davis, and her stringent analyzation of Greek Life as a whole. What happened to Tim Piazza is in no way okay.
The Napa Valley Register recently published an article on the hearing for the expulsion of Napa High School football player Johnny Torres. Torres, accused of, “dragging another player through the locker room and helping hold him down while the victim was groped and penetrated by other players,” was not described in the article as a rapist, nor as someone participating in the sexual assault of another individual, but instead, became the all-too familiar character of the goody-goody athlete with not a spot on his record. What is also very apparent in the article is the clear tip-toeing around what Torres and other players have been accused of, which as far as we can tell from the Register’s cryptic concealment, is gang rape. This behavior by both Torres’s family, who requested that the expulsion hearing be made public, and by the media, which in the case of the Register seems to be garnering sympathy for Torres and pulling attention from the heinous
“...he said he was in the process of establishing a program for high school and college students so that he could ‘speak out against the college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that,’”("20 minutes”). The assault that Brock Turner took place in, is not defined because of the level of their intoxication, it is explained through basic moral and knowingness that rape is wrong. Because the victim was unresponsive, the act is directly considered unacceptable. Even more so, the act of rape should not be undermined to something as under-represented as sexual promiscuity. Turner and his attorney’s claim that he only committed the assault because he was under the influence of alcohol and that he should personally participate in programs that enforce the effects of binge drinking.
Yet a sober analysis of the matter reveals that the victim is important and the fact that Brock Turner sexually assaulted her should not be disregarded just because he was a great student and athlete. Dan Turner blames the partying culture of college for his son’s behavior but in reality, there is no excuse for sexual
The Steubenville High School Rape case, is one of the high profile criminal cases within the last two years. The case occurred in Steubenville, Ohio on August 11,2012. When a sixteen year old girl was intoxicated and raped. She was publicized through social media of a video and sexually assaulted by two of her peers at a party. With an underage drinking party at Matt Belerdine’s house.
"The school's former president, Graham Spanier, was charged with five criminal counts in connection with the child abuse scandal that continues to keep the campus in the national spotlight for a year and counting", (Marklein, 2012) These additional charges brought more issues. The university was forced to find a new president, as well as conform to any fees from the legal aspect. “The university has completed or nearly completed 40 of Freeh's recommendations. For example, it has “hired a full-time officer to ensure compliance with federal crime-reporting requirements, and publicly posted the contracts of key officials, including the president, head football coach and acting athletic director", (Marklein, 2012).
Colleges are protecting their public record and do not wish to affect their brand be publicly admitting the high rates of sexual assaults. The documentary focused on a student attending Harvard Law School and the administrators insisted that the female victim should remain silent and avoid spreading the incident around. They asked questions such as, "Did you give him the wrong message, why did you choose not to fight back". Victim blaming is presented when the administrators are more interested in what the victim did wrong rather than what the offender's actions
On November 19, 2014, the publication of an arIt was on November 19, 2014 that the publication of an article in the Rolling Stone magazine concerning sexual assault on campus led to two long and complex court cases. The article titled “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” was describing the gang rape of a University of Virginia freshmen identified as “Jackie” perpetrated by fraternity members of the UVA Phi Kappa Psi house. The article also identifies the existence of a certain UVA junior named“Drew” who happens to be the member that invited “Jackie’ at the house. While the two court cases Elias et al v. Rolling Stone LLC and Eramo v. Rolling Stone LLC were linked to this same article and had the same defendants,
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
This displays the need for better testing of these rape kits, because if they do not get tested within a timely fashion, many others could become victim to the same rapist just like in the newspaper. One of the victims of Jones’s rapist is also a male showing that both men and women can be raped. Throughout the US thousands of rape kits are left untested. Each one represents a victim of sexual assault waiting for justice, and by leaving the kits untested the criminal is able to walk free and hurt others like in Ms. Jones’s case.