🖋Madeline Halpern

❌Warning: This report contains disturbing details and content about sexual assault.❌

When Mary was a first-year university student, after attending a party held by one of the student fraternity associations—mostly male organizations at U.S. universities—she woke up and found her entire body covered in bruises and bite marks.

She says it took her several days to piece together what had happened and realize that during a period when, because she had consumed alcohol, she couldn’t remember what occurred, she had been sexually assaulted. It also took her some time to find both the strength and an appropriate way to report the assault.

The man whom Mary had accused was eventually expelled from the university, but the police declined to press criminal charges against him, citing what they described as a lack of physical evidence.

Mary, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, says the process of reaching a degree of justice is often confusing and frustrating.

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