Authors: Jon Krakauer
In a
Washington Post
column published in June 2014, George Will, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Fox News pundit, disparaged Obama’s efforts to address what Will dismissed as “the supposed campus epidemic of rape, a.k.a. ‘sexual assault.’ ” After accusing the White House of making “victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges” and, thus, encourages victims to “proliferate,” Will further complained,
Now the Obama administration is riding to the rescue of “sexual assault” victims. It vows to excavate equities from the ambiguities of the hookup culture, this cocktail of hormones, alcohol and the faux sophistication of today’s prolonged adolescence of especially privileged young adults….Academia is learning that its attempts to create victim-free campuses—by making everyone hypersensitive, even delusional, about victimizations—brings increasing supervision by the regulatory state that progressivism celebrates.
The reaction to Will’s remarks was caustic and swift. “The last word I ever expected to hear to describe a rape victim is ‘privileged,’ ” wrote Jessica Valenti in the
Guardian
. “It takes a particular kind of ignorance to argue that people who come forward to report being raped in college are afforded benefits of any kind.”
United States Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Dianne Feinstein of California, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Robert Casey of Pennsylvania posted a letter to Will online, blaming him for fostering a culture that enables rape:
[Y]ou trivialize the scourge of sexual assault, putting the phrase in scare quotes and treating this crime as a socially acceptable phenomenon. It is in fact a spreading epidemic, and you legitimize the myths that victims and victim advocates have worked tirelessly for decades to combat.
Your column reiterates ancient beliefs about sexual assault that are inconsistent with the reality of victims’ experiences, based on what we have heard directly from survivors.
Despite the deeply flawed ways that many universities investigate and adjudicate rape allegations, it’s important that they not be allowed to abdicate their institutional responsibility and simply turn over sexual-assault cases to law enforcement agencies, as ACTA president Anne Neal, and others, have argued they should. Criminal investigations of students accused of rape should be undertaken
in addition
to universities’ disciplinary proceedings, not in lieu of them. The criminal justice system simply moves too slowly and is constrained by too many “formidable procedural obstacles,” as Judge Posner put it, to reliably punish campus rapists and remove them from the academic community. Expelling a rapist isn’t an ideal outcome, because the offender remains on the loose, free to rape elsewhere. Expulsion is far better than no punishment at all, however. At least it spares the victim from having to live and study in close proximity to her assailant.
The oft-repeated claim that university adjudications categorically deny the constitutional right of due process to perpetrators is specious. Campus disciplinary proceedings cannot, and should not, be held to the same restrictive standards as criminal proceedings, because
they don’t result in incarceration or require the rapist to register as a sex offender. University officials, like high school officials, must be allowed to expel students who pose a threat to other students, without waiting many months, or even years, for the criminal justice system to run its course—a course that all too often fails to convict individuals who are guilty of rape, or even charge them with a crime.
There is nothing inherently wrong with universities relying on a lower evidentiary standard—“a preponderance of evidence”—for the burden of proof. A preponderance of evidence is all that’s required of plaintiffs to prevail in most civil litigation, even when the defendant has been accused of a wrongful act that violates criminal law. O. J. Simpson was infamously acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, because the government failed to convince a jury that Simpson was guilty of the criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Nevertheless, when Simpson was found liable for the wrongful death of Goldman in a civil lawsuit by Goldman’s father, based on a preponderance of the evidence, few Americans believed the verdict was unjust.
All colleges and universities require students to follow the rules of the institution they attend. If a student violates school policy by failing classes, or cheating on exams, or dealing drugs, or sexually assaulting another student, school officials not only have the right to sanction the offending student, they have an obligation to do so.
When a student is accused of sexual assault, a university needs to render its judgment with great care, because to be labeled a rapist carries an indelible stigma, and to incorrectly find the student guilty could cause him lasting harm. But a university needs to take just as much care not to incorrectly find the student innocent, because doing so would send the message that he was falsely accused, unjustly stigmatizing the victim and compounding the trauma of being raped. It’s easy to forget that the harm done to a rape victim who is disbelieved can be at least as devastating as the harm done to an innocent man who is unjustly accused of rape. And without question, the former happens much more frequently than the latter.
Females between sixteen and twenty-four years old face a higher risk of being sexually assaulted than any other age group. Most victims of campus rape are preyed upon when they are in their first or
second year of college, usually by someone they know. And it’s during the initial days and weeks of a student’s freshman year, when she is in the midst of negotiating the fraught transition from girlhood to womanhood, that she is probably in the greatest danger.
Instead of shirking their legal and moral obligations by leaving it up to law enforcement agencies to protect female students, universities need to formulate procedures for adjudicating sexual-assault complaints that are uniform, streamlined, and fair to all parties. The process should swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused. Establishing such a process will be difficult, but it’s not rocket science. The challenge can be met, and must be met, because failing to do so would be unconscionable.
IN 2012 I LEARNED
that Laura Summers,
*
3
a woman in her late twenties with whom my wife and I have a close relationship, had been raped when she was in her mid-teens by a male peer. A few years later she was sexually assaulted by a different acquaintance; this time the perpetrator was a trusted family friend. The men who assaulted her didn’t just steal her innocence; they poisoned her understanding of who she was. They transformed her into a kind of ghost, trapped forever in the act of being violated.
In the wake of these betrayals, Laura sought relief by focusing obsessively on her career, sometimes working forty-eight hours or more without a break. She gobbled Adderall to stay awake and guzzled alcohol to fall asleep, following this regimen for years with grim perseverance. It was an unconscious attempt to annihilate herself, she now recognizes, in order to escape the despair that hounded her without respite.
I wasn’t aware that Laura had been assaulted, or was so disconsolate, until she ended up at The Meadows, a facility in Arizona that treats trauma and addiction. During the period that preceded her arrival there, Laura repeatedly found herself engaging in one-night stands with uncaring men. She told me that while she was at The
Meadows, “I learned about the concept of ‘trauma repetition,’
*
4
and my therapists identified for me that my sexual acting-out was a reaction to the trauma of being sexually assaulted—self-destructive behavior that happened almost entirely when I was highly inebriated, the same conditions of the original assaults.” She was trying to take back control of her life from the men who had raped her. It was a heartbreaking effort to make the world safe again.
Laura suffered intensely for many years from being sexually assaulted. And her misery, she said, was magnified by the stigma attached to the unhealthy compulsions that tyrannized her existence after the assaults. In this regard she was like many other rape victims. Their self-destructive behaviors are often held up as “proof” that they are unreliable and morally compromised, or that they deserved to be raped.
AFTER LAURA TOLD
me about what she’d endured, I was angry with myself for being so uninformed—not only about her ordeal but about non-stranger rape in general. So I resolved to learn what I could about it. I did a lot of reading, and I sought out rape survivors who were willing to share their stories. Writing this book was an outgrowth of that quest.
As the scope of my research expanded, I was stunned to discover that many of my acquaintances, and even several women in my own family, had been sexually assaulted by men they trusted. The more I listened to these women’s accounts, the more disturbed I became. I’d had no idea that rape was so prevalent, or could cause such deep and intractable pain. My ignorance was inexcusable, and it made me ashamed.
For five months in 2006 and 2007, while doing research for an earlier book, I was embedded with combat troops in Afghanistan. After that book was published, some veterans I’d come to respect urged me to join their weekly group therapy sessions. Over the years that followed, several vets in the group—soldiers and Marines who had served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan—talked movingly
about their struggles with post-traumatic stress. And some of what they described sounded a lot like what Laura was grappling with.
When I mentioned this to Trisha Dittrick, the therapist who supervised our group, she told me she wasn’t surprised. Rape and war, she explained, are among the most common causes of post-traumatic stress disorder, and survivors of sexual assault frequently exhibit many of the same symptoms and behaviors as survivors of combat: flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, hypervigilance, depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts, outbursts of anger, unrelenting anxiety, and an inability to shake the feeling that the world is spinning out of control.
There is no “cure” for PTSD. The repercussions of severe emotional trauma, whether from war or rape, are typically felt for decades. But there are ways to transcend the trauma and recapture the ordinary pleasures of existence. Counseling from a skilled therapist can certainly help. And so can speaking the truth about the unspeakable nature of the harm. By such means, Laura Summers managed to regain her equilibrium and find a measure of peace. A significant part of her healing, she said, came from sharing the excruciating facts of her ordeal with her family and friends after suffering in secret for so long.
Rapists rely on the silence of their victims to elude accountability. Simply by recounting their stories and breaking that silence, survivors of sexual assault strike a powerful blow against their assailants. Inevitably, many victims who come forward will be disbelieved, and will fail to find justice in the courts, in the halls of academia, or anywhere else. But by speaking out, they are likely to encourage other victims to tell their stories, too, and may find that they’ve advanced their own recovery in the bargain. As more and more survivors emerge from the shadows and reveal the pervasiveness of sexual assault, they draw strength from their numbers. This collective fortitude touches all victims, even those too fearful to speak for themselves, by eradicating the undeserved sense of shame that is so often borne in isolation.
Note:
An asterisk following a name denotes a pseudonym.
Adams, Zeke*:
University of Montana student accused of sexually assaulting Kerry Barrett in September 2011.
Aronofsky, David:
University of Montana’s chief legal counsel; he participated in the university’s adjudications of Calvin Smith for the 2011 rape of Kaitlynn Kelly and of Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson for the alleged 2012 rape of Cecilia Washburn.
Baker, Guy:
Veteran Missoula police detective who investigated the 2010 rape of Allison Huguet by Beau Donaldson and the alleged 2010 gang rape of Kelsey Belnap.
Banks, Brian:
Student falsely accused of raping Wanetta Gibson in Long Beach, California, in 2002. Banks served more than five years in prison before Gibson admitted that Banks had not raped her.
Barrett, Kerry:
University of Montana student who accused Zeke Adams of sexually assaulting her in September 2011.
Barz, Diane:
Former Montana Supreme Court justice who conducted an investigation into the apparent eruption of rapes at the University of Montana in 2010 and 2011.
Belnap, Kelsey:
University of Montana student who was allegedly gang-raped by four members of the Grizzly football team in December 2010.
Bienemann, Alex:
University of Montana football player who was a housemate
of Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson when Johnson allegedly raped Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Bierer, Ali:
Friend of Cecilia Washburn who urged her to have a forensic medical examination at the First Step Resource Center after Washburn told Bierer she had been raped by Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson in February 2012.
Blood, Mark:
Missoula police detective who partnered with Detective Guy Baker to investigate the rape of Allison Huguet in September 2010 and the rape of Kelsey Belnap in December 2010.
Boylan, Suzy:
Missoula County prosecutor who participated in the prosecution of Beau Donaldson for raping Allison Huguet in 2010 and the prosecution of Jordan Johnson in 2012.
Brady, Mike:
Missoula police chief who succeeded Chief Mark Muir after Muir retired, in December 2013.
Brueckner, Connie:
Missoula police detective who investigated the October 2011 rape of Kaitlynn Kelly by Calvin Smith and the alleged February 2012 rape of Cecilia Washburn by Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson.
Burton, Katie:
Missoula probation and parole officer assigned to the Beau Donaldson case.
Campbell, Tanya:
Missoula crime-victim advocate.
Cates, Irina:
Reporter for the Missoula television station KPAX who broke the news that University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson had allegedly raped Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Clark, Jennifer:
A Missoula County prosecutor.
Cotter, Michael:
U.S. attorney for the District of Montana, married to Montana Supreme Court Justice Patricia O’Brien Cotter.
Couture, Charles:
University of Montana dean of students who conducted investigations of the alleged 2010 gang rape of Kelsey Belnap by four Griz football players, the 2011 rape of Kaitlynn Kelly by Calvin Smith, and the alleged 2012 rape of Cecilia Washburn by Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson.
Datsopoulos, Milton:
Defense lawyer who represented Beau Donaldson when he was charged with the 2010 rape of Allison Huguet.
Donaldson, Beau:
Grizzly football player convicted of raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Donaldson, Brady:
Older brother of Beau Donaldson, the Grizzly football player convicted of raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Donaldson, Cathy:
Mother of Beau Donaldson, the Grizzly football player convicted of raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Donaldson, Larry:
Father of Beau Donaldson, the Grizzly football player convicted of raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Donovan, Shaun:
Missoula County prosecutor who participated in the prosecution of Beau Donaldson, the Grizzly football player convicted of raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Duerk, Adam:
Missoula lawyer, deputized as a special prosecutor, who participated in the prosecution of Grizzly quarterback Jordan Johnson for allegedly raping Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Engen, John:
Mayor of Missoula.
Engstrom, Royce:
President of the University of Montana.
Erschler, Sam*:
Friend of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson.
Eustace, Bob:
Teacher and football coach at Missoula’s Big Sky High School who coached Beau Donaldson.
Fairmont, Betsy*:
Friend of Kelsey Belnap who was present when Belnap was allegedly gang-raped in December 2010.
Fargo, Joanne*:
Jury member at the trial of Jordan Johnson for allegedly raping Cecilia Washburn.
Florio, Gwen:
Senior reporter for the
Missoulian
whose numerous articles exposed the Missoula rape scandal.
Foley, Jim:
Vice president for external relations at the University of Montana who resigned after playing a controversial role in the university’s rape scandal. Prior to serving as UM vice president, Foley had been chief of staff for Pat Williams, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Montana.
Francoeur, Claire:
Nurse-practitioner at the First Step Resource Center who performed forensic examinations of Allison Huguet after she was raped by
Beau Donaldson in September 2010, Kelsey Belnap after she was allegedly gang-raped by four Grizzly football players in December 2010, and Cecilia Washburn after she was allegedly raped by Griz quarterback Jordan Johnson in February 2012.
Froland, Kelli:
University of Montana student with whom Griz quarterback Jordan Johnson wanted to have a romantic relationship at the time he allegedly raped Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Green, Stephen:
Friend and housemate of Cecilia Washburn; Green was playing a video game just outside the door of her bedroom when Washburn was allegedly raped by Griz quarterback Jordan Johnson in February 2012.
Haake, Kathryn:
Reporter for the
Missoulian
.
Herr, Rudy:
Youth pastor and childhood football coach to University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson who testified as a character witness for Johnson at his trial for allegedly raping Cecilia Washburn.
Huguet, Allison:
Longtime friend of University of Montana football player Beau Donaldson who was raped by Donaldson in September 2010.
Huguet, Beth:
Mother of Allison Huguet and first wife of Kevin Huguet.
Huguet, Kathleen:
Younger sister of Allison Huguet.
Huguet, Kevin:
Father of Allison Huguet.
Huguet, Margie:
Second wife of Kevin Huguet and stepmother of Allison Huguet.
Huguet, Sarah:
Older sister of Allison Huguet.
Johnson, Jordan:
University of Montana quarterback accused of raping Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Johnson, Marty:
Father of Jordan Johnson.
Johnson, Trumaine:
University of Montana football player (unrelated to Jordan Johnson) arrested in December 2011 for assaulting another student at a party. Johnson became a star cornerback for the St. Louis Rams after leaving UM.
Jones, Nancy*:
University of Montana roommate of Kaitlynn Kelly who was present when Kelly was raped by Calvin Smith in October 2011.
Kato, Dillon:
Reporter for the
Montana Kaimin
who wrote about the sexual assaults of two University of Montana students by a Saudi exchange student in February 2012.
Keck, Darla:
Lawyer in Milt Datsopoulos’s law firm who provided free legal representation to Griz cornerback Trumaine Johnson in December 2011 when he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Kelly, Kaitlynn:
University of Montana student who was raped by Calvin Smith in October 2011.
Lacny, Peter:
One of two lawyers representing Beau Donaldson at the January 2013 hearing to determine Beau Donaldson’s sentence for raping Allison Huguet in September 2010.
Lang, Mitchell:
Missoula police officer who interviewed Kelsey Belnap at the hospital after she was allegedly gang-raped in December 2010.
Lisak, David:
Clinical psychologist who is one of the nation’s foremost experts on rape and its associated trauma.
Marks, Jason:
Prosecutor in the Missoula County Attorney’s Office.
McGowan, Michael:
Chaplain for the University of Montana football team who testified as a character witness for Jordan Johnson at his trial for allegedly raping Cecilia Washburn.
McLaughlin, Hillary:
Resident of Great Falls, Montana, who was sexually assaulted by Beau Donaldson in Missoula in 2008.
Merifield, Jamie:
Missoula police detective who investigated Zeke Adams’s alleged sexual assault of Kerry Barrett.
Moore, Michael:
Missoulian
reporter who wrote an article about the gang rape of Kelsey Belnap.
Morin, Lori:
Assistant dean for student affairs at the University of Montana School of Pharmacy when Cecilia Washburn, who was one of her students, was allegedly raped by Griz quarterback Jordan Johnson in February 2012.
Mortimer, Sharon*:
Friend of Beau Donaldson and second cousin of Hillary McLaughlin, Mortimer was present at the 2008 party at which Donaldson attempted to rape McLaughlin.
Motl, Jonathan:
Montana commissioner of political practices.
Muir, Mark:
Missoula police chief.
Myers, Jim:
One of two psychologists who evaluated Beau Donaldson after he was arrested in January 2012 for raping Allison Huguet.
O’Day, Jim:
University of Montana athletic director who was fired in March 2012 as the Missoula rape scandal escalated.
Pabst, Kirsten:
Missoula County prosecutor who declined to charge Calvin Smith with rape after he sexually assaulted Kaitlynn Kelly; shortly thereafter, Pabst resigned from the Missoula County Attorney’s Office and became defense counsel for Griz quarterback Jordan Johnson when he was charged with raping Cecilia Washburn.
Page, Robert:
One of two psychologists who evaluated Beau Donaldson after he was arrested in January 2012 for raping Allison Huguet.
Paoli, David:
Defense counsel for University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson when he was accused of raping Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Perez, Thomas:
Assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice who announced in May 2012 that the DOJ was investigating the way eighty sexual-assault cases had been handled by the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, the Missoula Police Department, and the University of Montana.
Peterson, John:
Missoula drywall contractor who employed Beau Donaldson.
Pflugrad, Robin:
Head football coach at the University of Montana who was fired in March 2012 as the Missoula rape scandal escalated.
Richards, Ralph*:
Friend of Calvin Smith who testified at the University Court hearing at which Smith was found guilty of raping Kaitlynn Kelly in 2011.
Roe, Rebecca:
A Seattle lawyer in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office from 1977 through 1994, where she supervised the Special Assault Unit for eleven years.
Ronan, Lewis*:
Portland State University student who allegedly raped Keely Williams in September 2008.
Samuels, Jocelyn:
Acting assistant U.S. attorney general in 2014, when the federal government settled its lawsuit with Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg.
Sells, Paul:
Clinical social worker who treated Beau Donaldson for drug and alcohol dependency after he was arrested in January 2012 for raping Allison Huguet.
Smith, Calvin*:
University of Montana student who raped Kaitlynn Kelly in October 2011.
Smith, Mary*:
Mother of Calvin Smith, who raped Kaitlynn Kelly in October 2011.
Styron, Benjamin*:
University of Montana football player who was the boyfriend of Betsy Fairmont. Kelsey Belnap was allegedly gang-raped during a party at Styron’s apartment in December 2010.
Sutherlin, Joanna*:
Friend of Hillary McLaughlin who invited McLaughlin to a party at her home in 2008; there, Beau Donaldson tried to rape McLaughlin.
Thompson, Joel:
Montana assistant attorney general who served as a prosecutor at the trial of University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson, who was accused of raping Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Townsend, Karen:
Judge for Montana’s Fourth District Court who sentenced Beau Donaldson for raping Allison Huguet; she also presided over the trial of University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson, who was accused of raping Cecilia Washburn in February 2012.
Trieweiler, Terry:
Former justice on the Montana Supreme Court who wrote a 2013 opinion piece in the
Missoulian
in support of Pat Williams after Williams was widely criticized for remarking that the University of Montana football team “was recruiting too many thugs.”