Around an hour ago, every Cal Poly student got an email saying a woman had been raped at a Halloween party last night. Where was this party? At the PIKE fraternity—the fraternity we blasted last month for its extremely disrespectful attitude towards women.
According to Cal Poly, the victim said she may have been given drugs without her knowledge, which made her pass out. The email said, “When the survivor awoke a white male with blond hair and blue eyes with the first name of Jake was engaging in sexual activity without her consent.”
I’m really proud of the university for releasing both the name of the fraternity and the attacker. In these types of cases, knowledge is power; I know I personally want nothing to do with PIKE ever again. Two strikes, they’re out.
On Yik Yak, many people are responding to the posts with humor. I got tired of counting the State Farm jokes: “Jake is not a good neighbor,” “State Farm clearly isn’t keeping you safe,” etc. There were also a ton of one-liners like, “Her drink just got sPIKEd.”
I hope I wasn’t the only one reading those comments in disgust. A woman got raped last night and it’s already turned into social media fodder. Why can’t we unite over our shared anger and desire for change instead of a cheap laugh?
At least there are some people on the app that share my opinions.
“My heart is with the girl tonight I’m sorry this happened to you. I was at that party. It could’ve been any of us that night. I’m sorry it had to be you,” said one Yak.
“Prayers going out to the victim…” said another.
Sexual assault is no laughing matter. There were a string of incidents at Cal Poly last year, and in May, Mustang News reported that the number of reported rapes on campus doesn’t include all of the sexual assault allegations made.
Good for the victim for speaking up. Good for Cal Poly for releasing the names. Shame on everyone turning this into a joke. And definitely shame on Jake.