Last spring, UTC’s Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity hosted their “rave” party. Flocks of young men and women dressed in neon clothing and headed to the Pike house that evening to socialize, dance and have a good time.
A worrisome allegation has now come out about that party, accusing one of the fraternity brothers of date-raping a partygoer. The victim, who has remained anonymous throughout the investigation, was a freshman student at a college in Alabama at the time of the incident. In the lawsuit, she claimed that she knew the brother beforehand. In fact, she was friends with his ex-girlfriend who attends her college as well. She came up from Alabama to visit a friend and she subsequently decided to attend the rave party.
The lawsuit states that the victim was picked up by the brother and a Pike pledge, who drove her to the party. On the way there, she was forced to drink whiskey and other alcoholic drinks even though she began declining them. She claims that the brother joked about how she would be sleeping with him that night, and she responded by saying that it would not be happening. When they arrived at the party, she was given more drinks she did not want. The victim claims she was then taken into a locked bathroom and raped after certain brothers “encouraged” the accused to have sex with her, chanting, “F*** her, she doesn’t care.” A tooth was broken during the incident, she was crying, and she was taken back to the accused’s dorm room where she vomited and passed out. Then he took pictures of her unconscious in his bed and sent the images along with a text to his ex-girlfriend saying, “I f***ed (anonymous) and it was great.”
The lawsuit claims that the delay is due to the "inadequate response by police in Chattanooga" who apparently failed to present a rape kit and witness statements to the appropriate authorities. Nearly seven months later, the victim is suing the accused and the fraternity in a million-dollar lawsuit taken to the U.S. District Court. The brother is no longer a student at UTC and no longer a brother of Pi Kappa Alpha.
I don’t know if this is exactly what happened that night. I’ll never know. I’m not the victim. I’m not the accused. I am truly saddened that the victim had to go through what she did. I hope she receives her justice, and that any brothers responsible for the incident receive their punishments. However, I hate that the brothers who were completely unaware of the situation, or maybe not even at the party, to be condemned for the actions the alleged rapist and any bystanders.
My point is this: you cannot base your opinion of an entire group off of the decisions of one individual. I know many Pikes at UTC that are thoughtful, respectful gentlemen. In every large group of people, you cannot assume that the whole group endorses the ideas of one person.
I’m not saying all fraternity men are respectable and incapable of harm. However, when something happens with a brother of a fraternity in an assault case, it is almost always links to that fraternity for the blame. Fraternities have gained a bad rep in recent years for these reasons.
But with the fraternity’s reputation aside, there was still a victim in this case. Though situations like these are unavoidable and the victim is never at fault, there are certain steps you can take in situations where you may feel uncomfortable. Please do not be afraid to use your gut feeling when it comes to making judgement calls about a place you're in. Do not be afraid to get up and leave or walk away from a person if you feel uncomfortable. If you are in a situation where you don’t know the people you are with very well, don’t drink alcohol. Don’t let anyone make you think you have to drink alcohol. Ever. Actually, it can be pretty entertaining to be sober at a party full of intoxicated people and people watch. Also, don’t go alone -- bring a trustworthy friend that would step in should an issue arise that would be detrimental to your best interest.
I hope whatever truly happened that night will receive the justice it deserves, and that the media stops making all fraternities out to be gangs of drunks with a desire to assault simply because of the horrid actions of one brother.
