The lack of process in place is about the same for most schools that size and design. If Simcha cant openly accuse the guy of rape, how can the school? God bless you and keep you. Bear in mind I never heard of anybody calling security if they were at a party in South Bend that got out of handbut I didnt run in very party-like circles. I dont like it, but I do get why they cant sling accusations around. Going Drinkin with Lincoln before class on Lincolns Birthday and getting buzzed or worse. Everyone knew., Smith complained to the school, and she says they gave Marshner a slap on the wrist.. His behavior is horrible and I hope that he experiences the full extent of the justice system. Maybe that needs to be spoken about more openly among students. And I did end up seeing that friar once for counselling but he activated several gut feelings to stay away, and so I did. And some of the friends that I made. I have no doubt that this faith will do the same for each of you if you let it, and perhaps even if you dont. is buddy allen married. My criticism of this article is blaming Christendom for not doing the same thing this article can not; openly accuse the man in question of rape. After the sanctions were imposed, Smith and the young man still had classes together, including core classes that were required for all students. But the stubborn Irish in me determined if I left, he would win. The idea of being torn apart in court by someone with a law degree, and it being in the paper, was too much for me to imagine. Start your day off right, with a Dayspring Coffee When I left the DHS I got a teaching job at a progressive catholic high school and the culture shock was intense. It can, however, cost people their livelihoods and smear the reputation of people and universities. Merely printing something against rape seems redundant, though. This article sound like the argument for legalization of abortion: if abortion had been legal, coat-hangar abortions never would have happened. All the fancy theology was useless for anything except further torturing myself for not being a good enough Catholic, not following the rules enough, and not being spiritual enough. 239: Spot the fiendish thingy, Whats for supper, vol. Holy crap, anonymous. LOL, the chastity policy was a joke when I went there. I sympathize with the people who want a man to be expelled based on one womans testimony (such as in the above article), but we have to admit that is at the expense of innocent men getting expelled as well. That sounds like quite the emotional roller coaster. Its a campus so safe, that rapist actually have to convince their victims to leave in order to rape them. Im sad to hear about his victim, especially since I had a similar experience with a non-Catholic pastor. [T]he alleged assault of Adele did not take place on campus. The lack of PDA rules has not protected the women on those campuses. Disclosing abuse and its aftermath is painful and difficult, and it takes a tremendous amount of courage. Good. The town has over 14,000 people, so the college isnt a large part of it. hanging alongside her brown scapula. I was raised in a conservative evangelical household and converted to Catholicism my junior year. She didnt want to accept that something so ugly had happened to her. However, Im not sure the reporting here accurately reflects of the issues at Christendom, and it certainly doesnt lay out anything that can be done to improve conditions for future students, as the few things suggested have already been implemented. I kept up with a few of my friar classmates over the years. He started kissing her. I didnt say they should immediately assume hes a rapist, call him a rapist, and publicly expel him as a rapist. I am having trouble understanding how policies against public displays of affection and against men & women being in each others dorms contributes to rape. Frankly I think you have misused a term that is quite affectionate.school is a place to learn and at this particular school it is a place to strengthen ones faith. This gives women more of an opportunity to share a concern or incident with a staff member they trust. All we know is that they did some kind of inquiry and issued that statement. Returning later, I was surprised how much more town there was than I was familiar with. Why not with the rape? jlhyacintha wrote: A school can also take rape allegations seriously, and remove the accused person from campus. Adele Smith, class of 2012, experienced some culture shock when she arrived at Christendom. For this reason, I am particularly honored to associate myself with such a fine Catholic institution of higher learning and my prayers are that Christendom College will enjoy many more years of service in the education and formation of young people.[22], Christendom College is also listed as a Recommended College by the Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. Why shes even Catholic I do not understand. I did experience the misogyny. Protected: Ill See Myself Out, Episode 61: Dont be coming round here with no oranges. When we do so, the conversations about purity culture and what people wear will also become moot points, because it is about power and consent, regardless of gender. You are right, men do absolutely do have that ability to control themselves. Christendom is an excellent college with a delightfully wholesome atmosphere. The woman interviewed described what she remembered from the time she was there. If they do, their efforts to grow as a Catholic college will surely be blessed by greater growth in virtue. The message delivered was clear, according to Smith. Enjoy your freedom. What in this story is inaccurate? And no-one can really know the statistics. We cant! Another no escapes your lips and you make another feeble effort to turn away or push his hands away. What was he going to say? You dont like the sense it makes, you disagree with it, but your disagreement does not make it illogical. I am with you that Christendom should enumerate the inaccuracies it sees in here, it would go a long way towards communication in this area. What did this mean about me in my conservative Christian culture? Note: This subreddit is a support forum and not a debate group and will be moderated accordingly. All I do have is the perspective of a dumb young adult who thought he'd found Heaven's outpost on earth. It is endorsed by The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College and has been characterized as a conservative Catholic liberal arts college. The steps they have taken are a good beginning, but only that. Like that has never happened before on a less stringent campus. want more proof of sexual assualts? I emerged with my virginity intact. Or going to the county if the town is not addressing it? Does no one else see the greater responsibility as a compliment from our Creator? The old one, which stands at the heart of the campus, is too . Gross inaccuracies in the story include quoting someone as saying men and women arent allowed to even sit next to each other. I am incensed by the way Simcha makes it sound like Dr. Marshner condoned and sheltered a known rapist, and then was fired from the school. Civil authorities operate under much greater constraints. We care if you drink off campus, but not if you rape off campus, she said. Extraordinary how you miraculously have the ability and the right to judge her soul from an article. I used to ask my fiance when we were engaged, do you love me a la folie? Trying to live as a chaste couple before marriage, I was constantly struggling with worries over love and acceptancemany times after making out wildly with him but then walking away and saying goodnight. They can work *with* local law enforcement, but thats as far as it goes, because theyre federal. I went to an elite secular college and had a pretty bad experience. She took refuge in one of the buildings until he left as he obviously meant her harm. I dont mean to down play the role that a school has in protecting its students and holding perpetrators accountable. It is alleged that a professor offered an example about Adele in class in an effort to smear her, however multiple students have come forward to say that his example was being used many, many years before Adela even attended the university, so it couldnt have been about her. Their donations requests are a joke. If you dont have weed places, does that mean youll get crack places? LOL do you really think students who put a mattress on the cement floor of a basement were looking for romance?! You can see it, you can feel it on the campusWhile some colleges in this Guide may match its Catholic commitment, it is unlikely that any exceeds it. The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. Then on November 24, 2009, you sat next to her on a bench and made unwanted contact with her by placing your hand on her knee. She was not treated properly from a Catholic perspective nor from an institutional perspective. Thats certainly not Christendoms fault. Now, 10 years later, she popped on my fb board, so I checkes her up. I dont understand the logic of protecting the identity of the alleged rapist and meanwhile running the names of college faculty through the mud for not somehow preventing a rape that occurred on a mountain and for not expelling a student for a rape that went unreported for a year and a half with no evidence. The article linked directly to the current handbook.. [3] The college also retired nearly $600,000 in debt without disrupting the growth of the college.[8]. Additionally, throwing out names of administrators and teachers as part of this story (good or bad) without their permission taints their reputation. All the people who are asking if Christendom girls could really be that naive, yes! The college was criticized for in the past not including rules against sexual assault in their handbook, while not offering any idea on what is now included in the Christendoms policy on sexual assault. The faculty hold degrees from schools such as Columbia University, Yale University, Catholic University of America, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and The John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family (Rome, Washington DC, and Melbourne sessions). 1) Paint a picture of the college not doing crap to help victims. People might think they are trying to help women, and that is an unacceptable conclusion. And if the woman involved was going to say yes anyway to whatever he suggested in terms of where they were going, as she said in the article, how would this have been any different even if there were different or no PDA rules? however CC is thriving on a 50s mentality that supports men as always being the bad guys and/ or the immaculate prince and responsible for the assaults and women (not girls) women as meek little things who just go along. CC seems to be a very dangerous place for all. Mr. Dorman showed no apparent interest in pursuing any sort of investigation, Scott Smith wrote. Smith skipped many classes her sophomore year, unable to endure being in the same room with him. The young man then started unbuttoning her jeans, and she again told him No. He pulled her down so she was flat on the back seat. Thank you for writing that. i believe that the world outside of CC understands that sexual assault has many./.. an infinite number of manifestations. Started in 1969, the Notre Dame Institute was created to train religious sisters to teach Catholic doctrine to other teachers, but later welcomed lay students in the late 1970s. Is the suggestion that Christendom should act in the place of the police, even without evidence of the rape? It should do better. Anyway, while on a work call I found a mattress and sheets in the back room surrounded by rose petals and candles. You have just illustrated the way of thinking that is a big problem: women being taught that they are responsible for mens actions. Having said that, the culture on campus is not what caused the rape. On the other hand, you encouraged us to hate ourselves and hate the world around us in pursuit of an impossible, harmful ideal, an ideal which crumbled whenever it met reality. BUT I never heard them saying they were going to patrol outside the campus borders. @ChristendomVA. absent more data (im just going off of what Ive read here so far) how exactly is a school supposed to punish someone for a violent felony for which they have Z-E-R-O evidence for? This story was researched and reported by Damien and Simcha Fisher. Just the two of us. I hope you will also do an expose on colleges such as Notre Damethe wackadoodle attitudes I encountered there regarding women and sex would make your head spin. Come on. Which they could now do on campus anyway. If he was accused again in the future, the record would help support that accusation. Thanks for writing this- I hope the college considers educating more students on assault and consent. I hope and pray that your bravery results in changes that help other women. I marched in the March for Life and protested a DC abortion clinic; for anyone whose lives I made worse by pushing anti-abortion propaganda, I am truly sorry. A longtime economics and political science professor at Christendom College in Virginia has been charged with solicitation of a minor under the age of 16 and two counts of . This is an insane accusation and was never the case, as students have stated. Heck, if she had even maybe goaded him into admitting it in a text it would be at least something other than just he said/she said and they could have proceeded with charges against him (case like that was successfully pushed at my old college using that tactic a few years back). Unfortunately we cant actually know if Christendom is safer when they dont even write down that there was an allegation. Second, the rape occurred off campus; and so the school considered itself helpless to respond to it. Do this by bringing up older, isolated issues and make it sound like the college has done next to nothing to improve. . There was always a (subtle enough that it could be gaslighted away if you tried to talk about it) sense that women just dont matter as much at Christendom. If you admit to being a feminist, well, you might as well admit to worshipping Baal. Theresa, I agree the Admin still needs to prove it is committed and i think the spotlight being held on them by this article will be helpful. Which means, of course, he may very well have done it again. Sure. While not commenting on this particular scenario, it got me musing (once again) on the whole problem of sexual assault and the current #metoo movement. It was up to me to avoid him, she said. Protected: Pocast #18: Lets just do it and be legends! The guilt I still carry from a year there was crushing - it was constant write ups for dress code, curfew violations because of my off campus job etc. I dont know what transpired during their internal investigation, but the college could have called both accused and accuser (separately) to give testimony in the presence of an attorney. I have seen no evidence that Christendom reported the accusation. To find out more about Student Achievement at Christendom, click here. Men have the ability to take custody of their thoughts and control their actions regardless of any other circumstance. They therefore leave campus to do that thing. He told me he was often bothered by the question about the purpose of satan's existence as a specifically troubling version of the problem of evil. These are some of the difficult questions the college should have asked itself. They brought the skills of their craft to shining a light on the dark underbelly of this college. Maybe you didnt mean to imply this to be the case for her, but using her name in the example makes it seem so. In 1983, the Institute was permitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia to grant degrees. [36] He has had no interaction with the school since 2015, the college said in an interview with the Northern Virginia Daily, adding that Luckeys relationship with the school would not continue. Yet, it is offered without proof of any sort, or even a source willing to go on record. Thats not how it works in any of the college towns Ive lived in, and I live in one now, where we also have a military base, and the base police dont have jurisdiction outside the base, for the most part. . She fled to her dorm and went to bed. It is not the victims terrible story that we dont believe, it is just the illogical conclusions that the author jumps to and the careless damage she is causing that are wrong. You are correct on what the report alleges and implies. [33] The college hired Husch-Blackwell to audit campus compliance with best practices in sexual assault and harassment cases, although it is not bound to do so by Title IX as the College does not accept federal funding of Title IV. When was the last time you heard of a lie or series of lies a journalist told being prosecuted? In a letter dated May 16, 2011, Scott Smith, her father, wrote to Timothy ODonnell, the president of Christendom, Adeles grades plummeted that first semester of her sophomore year. They know they are not as upstanding as they would like. I dont doubt that injustices have been done in the past and will be done in the future: this is a fallen world. Vol. The hollow piety I encountered there was so devastating, I expected everyone to be devout, not just going through the motions. By whose definition are they adults? I hope and pray that the uncovering of these wrongs will enable the college to properly apologize and make amends for their failures. That's no coincidence. Heres my letter that i wrote to Christendom last month. The statute of limitations for rape in the state of VA is 20 years (unless I am mistaken). The way I see it, and many may disagree with this, but the failure was not a moral failure, but an administerial one(if that). It also unfortunately means this creep will probably try it again with another girl. Lets embrace it. She remembers standing outside the car, smoking a cigarette and shaking, and her boyfriend saying he didnt know why she was making such a big deal out of it. Obviously they wouldnt escort us if we wanted to, say, walk across the road to Notre Dame, because that was going outside the campus bounds, but there was a nice shuttle bus system running between SMC and Notre Dame. It was just a generic example used year after year. They had a legal responsibility to investigate throughly, and a moral responsibility to respond appropriately, which they did not do. It is beyond belief that the man has not ever been punished. So this rape would not have occurred if the dorms were mixed gender? Simcha is right on in insisting that consent be taught at Christendom and in Catholic bubbles. Miriel. Christendom College University of Toronto-Regis College Experience Priest in Residence Christendom College Oct 2021 - Present1 year 2 months Assistant Professor Santa Clara University Sep. Its something I can share with bubble parents. Its hard to explain why my GPA is so poor.. Should rapists be burned at the stake without incontrovertible evidence? Catholics are sinners just like everyone else. I went to a small Catholic school in the 80s and knew all students there did not live up to the standards of the college or the faith. New student orientation includes a session that covers sexual harassment and assault, reporting, and on-campus resources for support. Teresa, if the school is a place to strengthen ones faith, but they have a history of taking rape and assault lightly, then what does that example say about the Catholic institutions ability to accurately guard and present the faith to these students?