LAWRENCE, Kan. – Students at The University of Kansas are taking to Twitter to express their outrage, after they saw a news report about an alleged rapist on campus not being appropriately punished.
The victim went to the Huffington Post to tell her story anonymously, now students are creating a trending hashtag in her support.
It started when Katherine Gwynn read a Huffington Post article, claiming a student was raped in a dorm on KU’s campus.
The victim’s attorney says a police report shows the suspect admitted to police he continued to have sex with the victim after she told him to stop repeatedly. Police did not respond to Fox 4’s repeated attempts to obtain that report.
The Huffington Post reports that the suspect was given probation and told to write a four page apology letter.
Gwynn and her friends were outraged.
They created #aGreatPlaceToBeUnsafe on Twitter, a play on the university’s recruitment tag line “A Great Place to Be.”
Soon, hundreds of students were tweeting, demanding the university render a harsher punishment.
“I felt a sense of hope for the situation, but disgust that I was even feeling that hope in the first place, because we shouldn’t be in this position,” KU student Isabella Hampton said.
“Well, our input right now is that what you are doing as of now is not acceptable. And you need to own up to the fact that your policies need to be overhauled,” KU student Katherine Gwynn said.
KU released a statement to all students, saying the incident is private and it cannot discuss the details.
The Douglas County Attorney is still investigating and could still file charges. He tells Fox 4 they just became aware that this victim has reported two rapes by the same suspect, in September and October.
The victim’s attorney told Fox 4’s Megan Brilley the two were friends, and that the suspect is no longer a student at KU. Fox 4 was unable to confirm that with the university.
