On Monday night, an anonymous Twitter account emerged from the Spelman College campus, detailing the alleged rape of a university freshman by a group of four Morehouse students.
Details are still murky, but the case has captured the attention of the nation. As facts continue to come out, here’s a timeline of everything that we know.
Monday, May 2
An anonymous individual identified by @RapedAtSpelman posts that she is planning on leaving Superman after she was raped at a campus party.
The woman said that she was drinking at the party when she went upstairs to vomit. Upon entering the bathroom, she was confronted by four Morehouse students who took her into another room and took turns raping her.
She said she reported the incident to campus public safety, who instructed her to have a rape kit done. She received no word on her case for a month, and when she finally did, she was asked by administrators what she was wearing, why she was drinking underage and why she was alone. Even more disturbing, she claims that a dean told her to give the men at Morehouse “a pass” because they’re Spelman’s brothers. The school’s degrading response caused her to start self-harming.
You can NEVER say Morehouse has their sisters back if they are just going to force her on it.
— Raped At Spelman (@RapedAtSpelman) May 2, 2016
Shortly after the student began posting her tweets, two hashtags begin circulating social media: #RapedAtSpelman and #RapedByMorehouse
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Tuesday, May 3
As the story begin attracting more and more attention, newly appointed Spelman president Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell issued a statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Our hearts go out to this students, and I want to personally offer her our full support and assistance.”
After issuing the statement to the AJC, Dr. Campbell tweeted the anonymous account.
Our hearts go out to you @RapedAtSpelman. Please identify yourself to me, so that I may offer you my full support and assistance.
— Mary S. Campbell (@SpelmanPres) May 3, 2016
Wednesday, May 4
As campus protests began popping up at Spelman demanding justice for the anonymous individual, Dr. Campbell released the following statement to the student body:
“Yesterday, many of you read on social media a disturbing account of sexual violence against a Spelman woman. I know that members of our Spelman community join me in expressing heartbreak and outrage over the incidents and experiences recounted on Twitter. Because the Twitter account is anonymous, I tweeted an invitation to @RapedAtSpelman to reach out to me personally so I, and the College, can provide full assistance and support. We continue to follow leads to identify the victim to offer our help and services.”
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Additionally, she said that she would look into hiring more staff dedicated to assisting survivors of sexual assault.
Morehouse President John Wilson Jr. issued a separate statement, saying that the tweets were the first time that college administrators had heard about the assault but promising that an investigation has been launched.
“At Morehouse, we take seriously all allegations of sexual assault, and we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that our students and students throughout the Atlanta University Center are encouraged to report any such incidents,” he said. “Both our Office of Campus Safety and the Title IX Office have been activated to fully investigate the allegations with the limited information that we have.”
The universities’ responses prompted the local police department to issue a separate statement, in which they said that they had not opened an investigation because they had no knowledge of the incident.
We will keep you updated with any new developments on this story.
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