Campus assault victim speaks out

Brian Whitson / Newport News (Va.) Daily Press (KRT)

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The large poster hung briefly Friday morning inside the glass case on the ground floor of the University Center. In large red letters, "CAMPUS RAPE" was written at the top, and what followed were details of an alleged sexual assault in the fall of 2001.

The bottom of the poster read, "DO YOU WANT A RAPIST BACK AT WM?"

More than a decade after a date-rape case at the College of William and Mary made national news, another student is going public about a sexual assault on the Williamsburg campus.

Samantha Collins, now a 19-year-old sophomore, said that it's time the college changed its policy on sexual assault and that she decided it was time to go public with her own story.

"I spent so much time whispering, and now it's time to scream," Collins said. "It seems like (the policy) is designed in favor of the perpetrator, rather than the victim."

Collins said she was raped by a student after she passed out at a campus fraternity party Oct. 16, 2001. The student - who she said was ultimately found responsible for sexual assault by a campus disciplinary committee - was dismissed from the college in January. But Friday was the date that he could request to be reinstated at the college, and that's something Collins fears.

"I'm the person who has a right to be here - not him," she said.

The Newport News Daily Press newspaper doesn't identify sexual-assault victims without their permission. Collins wanted her name and case published.

College officials won't discuss any specifics about the case, saying federal law prohibits them from disclosing personal records of students. That includes releasing information on student disciplinary action or hearings, said William T. Walker, college spokesman.

"It's against the law to do this," Walker said. "We can't respond."

That law, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1972, is also the reason that the college removed the poster, Walker said. It named two names, he said, and the college can't allow confidential student cases to be publicized on campus property. If Collins put the poster back up without naming the other student, officials said, they would allow it to remain.

Friday wasn't the first time that a William and Mary student has gone public about a sexual-assault case on campus. In the fall of 1990, Katie Koestner said she was the victim of date rape. Her story made it into the pages of Time magazine and eventually a special on HBO.

An in-house hearing at William and Mary in 1990 found a student guilty of sexual assault, but he wasn't suspended, Daily Press archives indicate. As punishment, an administrator prohibited him from visiting any dormitory other than the one that he lived in or any fraternity other than the one to which he belonged.

Collins says her immediate goal of going public is to keep the student involved in her case from being reinstated. She also wants to persuade the college to change its policy of leaving it up to the victim whether they want to pursue criminal prosecution on sexual-assault cases.

"If it helps one person or brings one change in the policy, it would be worth it," she said. "This could happen to another girl. I'm feeling the aftereffects of it every day."

During fall break in 2001, Collins says, a person in her dorm invited her to an informal party of about 20 people at a campus fraternity house. Collins admits that she had five or six beers over a two-hour period and became sick and passed out on a couch.

She doesn't how she got to a bedroom, but Collins was told that some of the fraternity brothers helped her from the couch to a vacant bed upstairs. One of the two students who lived in the room was out of town for fall break. The other arrived home later.

"I just remember waking up and finding (the student) essentially on top of me and trying to take off my clothes," she said. "All I could think is 'Oh, my God, what the hell is happening?' "

Collins said she was still ill and too weak to fight off the student. She remembers meeting him briefly earlier in the night, but he left the party and she really didn't know him.

"It's almost like you are in the middle of a nightmare," she said.

At the time that she reported the case, Collins said, she was encouraged by college officials not to pursue criminal charges. Collins said she ultimately decided against prosecution because she was worried that there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction.

Sam Sadler, the college's vice president for student affairs, said the college had very specific protocol when handling sexual assaults and had to be careful to allow all participants due process. But, he said, the college has no reason to discourage a student from pursuing prosecution. "At every step, the student is told there are multiple options," Sadler said.

The policy, Sadler said, separates sexual-assault cases into two categories: those that don't involve intercourse and those that do. If a student is found guilty of the first category, he said, the punishment ranges from probation to suspension. If they're found guilty of the other, it ranges from contingent dismissal to permanent dismissal. In a contingent dismissal, a student is removed from campus for a period and given a date when a request to be reinstated can be made and given a chance to convince the college that rehabilitation has occurred, he said.

Sadler said the college was open to proposals to change its policy and reviewed those each year. One policy change occurred about the same time of the Koestner case, though Sadler said the revision wasn't a direct response to that case: It mandates that a person found guilty of a sexual assault involving intercourse is removed from campus. Before, he said, that decision was left up to the discretion of the campus discipline committee.

Sadler said the college had three cases of sexual assault brought to the administration in the past 18 months. Two of those victims decided to go forward with a discipline hearing. In her case, Collins said, the student was also allowed to remain on campus and attend classes for a month as he appealed the original ruling. That appeal was denied, she said.

"It seems like the policy is designed in favor of the perpetrator, rather than the victim," she said. "There is a focus of keeping it within the college."

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