College of Charleston, family at odds over attack

She remembers the attack through fuzzy flashes of violence. He is on top of her -- grabbing, holding, violating. She screams for him to stop, warm tears stinging her face. He holds her closer and tells her to smile for him.

The 18-year-old woman's voice trembled as she recalled the Oct. 23 attack in her College of Charleston dorm room. The memories are painful, particularly because her accused attacker is a man she considered a friend.

But the teen and her family also carry frustration and a sense of indignity about the way the college handled the assault. Her name is not being used because The Post and Courier does not identify alleged rape victims.

She and her mother applaud campus police for making an arrest in the case.

But they fault school administrators for failing to reach out to help in the attack's aftermath. They also question why other students weren't alerted to the attack and why officials won't consider changes to campus housing policy to prevent similar incidents in the future.

"The college just doesn't seem to care," the mother said. "No one from there has called to say, "We're sorry this happened to you. What can we do to help?' We've had to initiate everything, and that's not right."

Not so, said college spokesman Mike Robertson. He said victim advocates and the dean of student affairs have spent a good deal of time trying to work with the family and accommodate their needs.

But some of their requests, such as banning or limiting opposite-sex visits in dorms at night, can't be accomplished without a major change to long-standing policy, he said.

"Over the years, we've had very few problems with that," he said, "and most students like the policy the way it is."

Read more later at postandcourier.com and in tomorrow's newspaper.

Source: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/23/college-charleston-family-odds-over-attack/

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