Amherst College Covers Up Rape Scandal
Angie Epifiano, a former member of the Amherst class of 2014, has caused quite a stir at Amherst University. Claiming that she was raped, she reached out to school administrators only to be turned away and told to sympathize with her rapist.
After seeing a college appointed psychiatrist because of suicidal comments that she made after not being able to handle the despair and helplessness she felt after being denied help, she wrote a 5,000-word piece detailing her breakdown.
“In short I was told: No you can’t change dorms, there are too many students right now. Pressing charges would be useless, he’s about to graduate, there’s not much we can do. Are you SURE it was rape? It might have just been a bad hookup…You should forgive and forget.
How are you supposed to forget the worst night of your life?
I didn’t know what to do any more. For four months I continued wandering around campus, distancing from my friends and going to counseling center. I was continuously told that I had to forgive him, that I was crazy for being scared on campus and that there was nothing that could be done. They told me: We can report your rape as a statistic, you know for records, but I don’t recommend that you go through a disciplinary hearing. It would be you, a faculty advisor of your choice, him, and a faculty advisor of his choice in a room where you would be trying to prove that he raped you. You have no physical evidence, it wouldn’t get you very far to do this.”
After Epifiano came out with her story, other young women opened up with their own stories of their cries of sexual harassment falling onto the deaf ears of Amherst faculty. It seems that Amherst is more concerned with keeping up their image then protecting their students. Her efforts, along with the efforts of several other students will hopefully set the school back on track- or so we hope.
Paul Hudson | Elite.
