Two new interviews with this girl and another feminist:
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AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to another story from Friday’s speak-out at Columbia. A woman named Jen read this story, which was submitted anonymously.
JEN: "This May, my boyfriend severely beat me in my dorm room. He punched me, choked me against my wall, threw me on the ground and pinned my neck to the floor with his foot. He threatened to kill me. A month before that, in a similar incident, he threw me down and threatened to rape me. That night in May, he hurt me so badly that I couldn’t move my neck or shoulders for days. Someone on my floor heard me screaming and reported it to my RA.
“Once Columbia had enough information, they issued a mutual no-contact order to both me and him. We broke it. I was completely alone and isolated and felt like I still needed him. I still loved him and just wanted the assault to go away. The penalty for breaking a no-contact order, whether complainant or respondent, is the same and can include suspension. The man who threatened to rape and kill me is protected under this policy, because he knows that I can’t give Columbia the information that they need to expel him without him turning me in for breaking the no-contact order. He will take me down with him if I pursue the case.
"It is completely unfair that Columbia holds abusers and their victims to the same punitive measures, when basic knowledge of cycles of abuse shows that victims often feel trapped and isolated, and therefore stay with the people who attack them."
AMY GOODMAN: One of the people who spoke out on Friday. Zoe, your response? And can you talk specifically about these no-contact orders?
ZOE RIDOLFI-STARR: So, in this case, the no-contact order, and in a many cases at Columbia, is just one example of the kinds of policies that place a really undue burden on the shoulders of the survivor, who is trying to, you know, just move forward with their lives, whether or not they choose to report. They’re trying to heal. They’re trying to move on. They’re trying to find peace and find ways to be happy again. In this case, you know, it prevents her from even reporting and from seeking help. This is a person who submitted an anonymous story, who actually stayed afterwards at the rally to speak to me and was desperate for help. So we’ve started working with her to try to explain what that process is like, how other students have tried to navigate this concern about the no-contact directive before, particularly in domestic violence cases. You know, there’s a very clear and well-documented cycle of abuse, where abusers manipulate victims and survivors, and people do end up speaking to their perpetrators again. That’s well known for anyone who’s been trained, even as I was just as an intern at a domestic violence agency a year ago, to understand; however, Columbia somehow can’t understand that, and their policies reflect their clear lack of sensitivity and training on these issues.