Sexual assaults and rapes are at an all-time high on IU’s Bloomington campus with 35 reported incidents over the first semester. Victims believe the actual number may be even higher. 

IU NewsNet was approached by three victims of sexual assault. None of them reported their case to the Indiana University Police Department because of an-ongoing and pervasive concern justice would not be served.

During the fall of Madison Smith’s  sophomore year, she went to a fraternity to hang out with some friends, despite COVID-19 policies restricting such gatherings. That night Smith says she was sexually assaulted by a man she previously considered her friend. 

I was blackout drunk, I still only have kind of fuzzy memories of the whole thing” Smith, now an IU junior, said. “I kind of did what I had to do to get through the situation to get myself out. And it was just it was really traumatizing.”

She claims she knew it would be traumatizing. 

“I was a drunk girl out of fraternity that I wasn’t supposed to be at because it was COVID. I was like, there’s there’s just no way that anyone’s going to care. In the justice system, there’s no way that anyone is going to want to even take my case, that would be such a key said she said case. And then hearing from other survivors, that the reporting process was really, really traumatizing”

Smith isn’t alone. Lilly Kaplan is the President of Safe Sisters, an organization meant to promote education among men and women about effective communication with sexual assault survivors. 

Kaplan says she too was a victim of rape. 

” I was raped,” Kaplan said.“And I don’t know if he found that enjoyable. But I certainly did not. I’d said no multiple times, I pushed him off. And I guess he was telling us friends that we had sex, which obviously, it wasn’t consensual.”

This had been the second time that Kaplan was assaulted in four years. She explained that she initially blamed herself. Kaplan said she felt her power had been taken away from her, that what happened took over her thoughts and led to depression. After it happened a second time, she realized it wasn’t acceptable and her anger turned to activism. 

Yet neither time, did she report the sexual assault to police.Her stated reasons were similar to those of Smith’s. 

“Re-victimization is almost as harmful as the actual event because it makes you go back to that moment where you lost all power,” Kaplan said.“And in a moment you’re trying to regain your power, you’re still losing it.”

 Jill Lees, IUPD Chief since 2019, says she understands reporting the process can be re-traumatizing to victims of sexual assault. Yet she still urges students to come forward. 

“We can understand that students feel that the reporting process is a big unknown and it’s a big you know, worry of is there going to be re-traumatization” Lees said.“We want students to feel comfortable but we also want students to report when they feel comfortable coming forward to IUPD or to other campus partners, to tell someone because that obviously can help prevent further sexual assaults as well.”

Libby Spotts works with the IU Title IX program. She spoke on the psychological needs of victims.

“A lot of things come back to feeling victim blaming. Feeling pressure about ‘what will my friends say?’ ‘Will I be supported?’ ‘Will the University take it seriously?’ ‘Do I have what I need?’”

Still, the victims feel as if change could be made. 

“What is IU doing to make me feel safe? They provide those rides, and they don’t even go to my house” Kaplan explained.

“I won’t get a ride because it’s only for freshmen on the door at the dorms. You’re providing resources to the most vulnerable people. Awesome. I don’t even know how to use it.”

As for Madison, she believes this isn’t a female issue.

“I think that the only thing that causes rape is rapists” said Madison. 

“Women should be allowed to go to parties and to drink and to drink too much and not worried about being raped.”