About 2 months ago, a woman and fellow Creighton student was allegedly sexually assaulted. She went through the necessary procedures: rape kit, speaking with Creighton’s “Office of Equity and Inclusion” and more. But when it all came down to it, the case against Cassie’s rapist was considered as consensual.

In response, Cassie published a letter that went viral around our campus as well as some local Omaha news outlets saying the Creighton’s procedures to prevent these situations and protect it’s victims let her down, disappointed her and did nothing to help her through this difficult time. She called out the University for not doing more for the victims in that situation.

The reasoning for it being labeled as consensual was the fact that Cassie had invited him over to hang out as well as the fact that during the violation… at some point she froze with fear and shock and lay there seeing her “no’s” weren’t working. Cassie said that she felt as though Creighton had buried her incident to avoid bad press. And Creighton isn’t the only university that has done this in the past and sad fact is that it also won’t be the last.

I was highly disappointed when I found out the our “Office of Equity and Inclusion” said that Cassie’s actions could be considered consent due to her silence after some time as well as her passivity. Except written within our Policies and Procedures on Harassment, Discrimination, Sexual and Relationship Misconduct says, “Consent cannot be implied through acceptance of an invitation. Silence and passivity cannot be interpreted as an indication of consent”.

The very reasons that were given to Cassie about the decision of the OEI: “the investigators find that [he] may have interpreted [my] actions as consent” is what as phrased in our bylaws shouldn’t be considered as consent. In my opinion, the Office of Equity and Inclusion basically showed Cassie as well as other students that just because our policies and bylaws might say one thing in our defense but that it doesn’t mean that that policy is actually put into action for the victim’s benefit.

If you would like to hear more about Cassie's letter or read it for yourself... here is the link: https://lifewithcassie1.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/i...