The Circle

   On Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, an e-mail memo was sent to all students by the director of safety and security.  In a classic twist-of-the-story conclusion that shocked, angered or humored us all, it turns out, they’re now telling us the alleged rape really was alleged, meaning the claims of rape were invented.  Words like “made up” and “fabrication” and “false” pierced through the hearts and heads of students alike, perhaps raising more questions than what we started with.

   After reading the latter part of the email explaining that the student who made up the whole story was arrested, charged with falsely reporting an incident, and will have to report to court, my initial thought was, “Why would someone make up a story about being raped?” 

   Why would someone want to deceive the entire Marist College community, plus Poughkeepsie police and officials?  And because there is no clear-cut or remotely intellectual answer for those questions, it moved me to a completely different angle on the rape case story.

   Let’s just say the student that claimed they were raped, really did get raped.  It’s very mysterious that only days later, the student folds on their own story and says it never happened.  Why? 

   What if they were pressured by the college’s higher-up administration to say it wasn’t true?  Marist College is an institute of academics that receives thousands of applications a year because people want to attend here.  Some even have Marist as a first choice.  Students’ families enthusiastically agree to pay the college massive amounts of money through tuition, just for their child to attend this prestigious, reputable school. 

   Now when this rape case came about, the school frenzied and extra security measures were taken immediately.  In days, the college appeared to have a handle on the matter.  What if the college really wasn’t prepared to handle the ordeal long-term?  They wouldn’t want any marks of hazard, shadiness, irresponsibility, or negligence attached to the college and its property.  Then, there would be a huge backlash from hard-to-deal-with parents huge and possibly in the future, the pool of interested applicants for the school would decrease. 

   You should’ve seen the disgusted looks on parents’ faces who were on group tours that weekend, seeing the newspaper with “RAPE” all over the cover.  Parents know “these things happen,” but what it really means is, “these things happen at every school, just not the one my son or daughter goes to.” 

   So, in turn, the student is pressured by a school shaking in their boots to fold her story, or they just simply e-mail us and tell us it never happened, and we forget the whole thing!  Rape? What rape? Badda-bing!

   My second theory is based around reputation.  People had ideas about who they think was raped or actually knew which girl the whole story refers to.  The girl didn’t want to be associated with her own case anymore; no one wants to be known as the girl who got raped, so she says she made it up.  People tend to stigmatize victims who have gotten raped as dirty or even sickly, so she retracts everything. 

   What happens then, regardless of if she actually got raped or not, is she not only faces some heavy charges and an arrest, but she’s known as the girl who pretended she got raped.  It’s not a smart idea, but maybe one out of desperation or frustration.  Plausible indeed.

   All and all, the whole alleged rape case is left wide open for interpretation by those who are compelled to question.  We shouldn’t always believe what we are being told, especially not through a series of rinky-dink e-mails.  Just because information is being fed to us by authority, does not mean students should blindly swallow. 

   Let’s be kids that questions it all.  The alleged rape case is controversial?  Maybe.  Shocking? Maybe.  Just straight-up weird?  Absolutely!  And that’s a wrap.

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