On the recordSeptember 6, 2016
This summer, the harrowing account of the Stanford rape victim sparked outrage across the United States and around the globe. The survivor's letter documented in graphic and painstaking detail the complicated, emotional, and overwhelming process facing victims of sexual assault. In her letter, the victim writes: ``The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus . . . Then, I felt pine needles scratching the back of my neck and started pulling them out of my hair. I thought maybe, the pine needles had fallen from a tree onto my head. My brain was talking my gut into not collapsing. Because my gut was saying, help me, help me. ``I shuffled from room to room with a blanket wrapped around me, pine needles trailing behind me, I left a little pile in every room I sat in. I was asked to sign papers that said `Rape Victim' and I thought something has really happened. My clothes were confiscated and I stood naked while the nurses held a ruler to various abrasions on my body and photographed them. The three of us worked to comb the pine needles out of my hair.'' The letter goes on to describe the rest of the forensic exam, her feelings about what happened to her, and her day in court. Her vivid and breathtaking account captured the national spotlight.…





