Part 6: Egregious Mishandling of Rape on Campus by the BUPD and the Administration
“I wish I could say that the Boston University administration has gotten better since someone filed a complaint,” a survivor of sexual assault wrote in a 2015 open letter.“I wish I could say that they care about survivors. They don’t. My story is also a familiar one: it starts at a frat party and it ends seven months later with a thick folder of official paperwork and nothing to show for it except a figurative and patronizing pat on the head. My assailant will not be punished by the university for what he did to me.”
She goes on to describe a horrifying, months-long process of back-and-forths with the administration. Her assailant was found responsible for rape only to be later granted an appeal and allowed to stay his suspension.
“I am writing this because I am left with no other options. I asked BU for justice, but I was victimized again,” she wrote. “Their system overturned its own decision with no new evidence, suggesting at the least, a remarkable lack of training, and at worst, a system that is designed to injure those already hurt.”
Her story is one of many incidents of the administration refusing to take survivors seriously and properly punish rapists and predators. This negligence extends to the BUPD.
First, as campus police, they are under the immediate jurisdiction of college administrators — not the state nor the public. Meaning, college administrators have the power to exert influence and other means to sway the outcomes of a case or investigation.
Second, the BUPD has been shown to fail spectacularly in handling crimes involving harassment and sexual assault.
Take a look at the following incidents:
From the Jan. 31–Feb. 3 crime logs:
Harassing calls
A caller reported around 8 p.m. Friday that she was receiving calls from an unknown person. BUPD determined that the occurrence is not a police issue and the case has been closed.
From my survey asking students to detail their experiences with the BUPD:
“There was an incident last fall where a guy with a camera came into the girl’s bathroom to take pictures (which he did). BUPD said they were going to interview everyone on the floor (co-ed). They interviewed a couple of GIRLS on the floor. None of the guys even knew what happened, even though technically they should be the first subjects- meaning that none of them were interviewed. Nothing happened after that. All the girls just felt very unsafe all the time after,” an East Asian student wrote.
These sentiments were echoed again and again by multiple students.
“One time, I had an issue with a man sexually harassing me to the point where I felt in danger. I told my RA, and next thing you know—at THREE am— BUPD is aggressively knocking on my door,” wrote a female Latina student. She continued:
“They sent a man to my room at 3 am, and he kept knocking and yelling that he wasn’t going to leave until I spoke with him. I remember sitting there paralyzed since I do not feel comfortable speaking with cops, especially with his aggressive tone. At a minimum, they could have sent a woman.
After waiting for about 10 minutes and realizing he wouldn’t leave, I got up and opened my door and my RA and the BUPD were staring at me with their arms crossed looking down at me. The cop told me that he wants me to give details about the man who did that to me, and I felt so intimidated by police and anxious that somehow the situation would be turned back on me, that I told him that I didn’t speak with the police.
He kept pressuring me, and I stayed firm. After that, BUPD called me for about 2 months EVERY single day-which only reminded me of the incident had happened, which I wanted to forget. BUPD essentially harassed me more than that man did. I would have significantly preferred somebody from [BU’s Sexual Assault Response Prevention Center] coming to speak with me.”
This was not the only reported incident of a male officer responding aggressively to a survivor of sexual assault. Another response to the survey contended that male officers often go to deal with sexual assault cases into girls’ dorms alone.
One survivor from the instagram page Campus Survivors wrote, “BUPD failed me. they promised me to send my case over to a district attorney. They even clarified and told me what happened was rape ‘for sure’ making me feel secure that I was getting help and proper attention from authorities. but I found out a semester later that they never sent my case over and the lieutenant who handled my case also left BU on an administrative leave, leaving me behind with no answers on the status of my case.”
Prisha Sujin Kumar, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-founder of the @campus.survivors Instagram page, recently wrote an incredibly poignant and incisive letter to BU administration on the rampant issue of sexual assault on campus, and how her own case was mishandled.
“I trusted you. Beyond it all, I believed in you. I let you have an investigation, and I believed that you meant to do everything for my well being,” Sujin Kumar wrote. “I let you question me numerous times about the exact details of my assault and interrogate me about what I was wearing and if I invited him first. I gave you in-depth details about who I was with, my text messages, my friends, and I trusted you to help me because I thought, As long as I am honest, I will be okay.”
Her assaulter was suspended for only one year, and his suspension has now ended. Sujin Kumar wrote that SARP was the only resource that helped her and she could trust. In her letter, she wrote, “Defund BUPD. Take the money you throw at them and put it back it into SARP. Put it into the Howard Thurman Center. Put it into the Anti-Racism research center. Put it into your mental health resources. I can guarantee you that you will actually see your students happier and healthier.”
Throughout the stories of survivors posted by Campus Survivors, many have repeatedly mentioned how much SARP has helped them through the process of reporting their assault and getting access to the resources they needed.
The first thing people ask when faced with the prospect of abolishing the police is: “If we abolish the police, what happens to the rapists?”
Survivors of sexual assault at BU have made definite statements about how the system has failed them and caused them more pain. The BUPD did not prevent their sexual assault, nor did it help bring justice to the predators and rapists that still attend classes on campus.
It is painful to admit to yourself that a system you had previously bought into has been actively harming those it claims to protect. It is even more painful to be victimized by this very system.
The truth of the matter is, if we abolish the police and distribute funds to programs dedicated to dealing with sexual assault, survivors of sexual assault may finally be able to receive some form of justice.
