Late Friday night, a WolfAlert email went out to all students notifying us of a crime—a female student was allegedly kidnapped by several males in a white van while she was on Hillsborough Street, who raped her and left her by the Dan Allen parking deck. Friday morning, we received an email saying that this didn’t really happen, and students shouldn’t worry about it. I’m concerned about this because we all know of the huge problem of silencing rape victims on college campuses. Did this incident REALLY not occur, or is that just what’s most convenient for the administration and police department? I find it very hard to believe that someone would make up a story like this and report it to the cops. While it’s certainly possible it was a false report, the number of uninvestigated and unreported sexual assaults is much higher than the number of falsely reported ones, so I’m dubious. It may be that the victim is in denial now and doesn’t want the publicity associated with prosecuting her rapists—but if that’s the case, I hope she will change her mind and fight. She may not have any allies among those in power who are supposed to help her, but she does have allies elsewhere. There are several programs here in Raleigh that provide legal and mental health support to rape victims, which I encourage her to take advantage of. Regardless, I sincerely hope that our school hasn’t simply covered up another young woman’s personal tragedy, or they would be no better than the men who used her and left her on the street.

Grace Van Eps

senior, nutrition science