“After what happened I didn’t go to any of my classes. I laid in bed and I didn’t really eat or sleep, because I had really bad nightmares. I still have panic attacks when I’m left alone for a long time.”

These are the words of a UW-Eau Claire student who was allegedly raped last fall at the Phi Gamma Delta’s Epsilon Chi (FIJI) chapter house, 1404 State St.

The alleged victim was put in contact with The Spectator after nearly three months since the incident with hopes to encourage other victims to come forward as well.

Her story
It was Nov. 12 at around 9:30 p.m. when the woman went, with a friend, to a party at the FIJI house. She said she went earlier than when the party usually started at that house, but since she knew the people there she felt comfortable in going earlier.

After putting her purse and scarf in one of the bedrooms, the woman took her own mixed drink out of her purse and went to the basement to start drinking it.

“I had (the drink) actually filled up in my dorm, and it was all sealed and everything,” she said. “I brought it down to the basement and I saw some guys that I knew there and they both had a sip of it.”

After having her drink, the woman doesn’t remember anything, besides leaving the basement and going upstairs in the house.

“I remember I felt like I needed to go upstairs and I remember kind of embracing the stairs, because the stair was super, super steep,” she said. “But I don’t remember entering any room.”

Around 12:30 a.m., the woman awoke in a bedroom at the FIJI house with no clothes from the waist down and without socks and shoes. The alleged assaulter, who the woman had met that night for the first time, didn’t have any clothes on and she has no recollection of how she arrived there.

“It was the worst thing, because when I was trying to leave I still had to touch him, because he was very big and I had to crawl over him to get my stuff,” the woman said. “Then he woke up and asked me where I was going and I didn’t say anything, I just started crying and I ran out of the room.”

After finding her friend, who was still at the party, both went back to their residence hall, where the RA called CASA to assist the woman.

“The girl from CASA was talking to me and explaining what I could do,” she said. “But I just wanted to sleep, because I just didn’t know what was going on. I had a really bad headache and I was
really tired.”

In the same morning, the woman proceeded to the hospital, where she received a rape kit, a pelvic exam and forensics testing. The doctor and the nurse who assisted her confirmed it was rape.
“(The nurse) could tell (it was rape) because it was red and she said it didn’t seem consensual, because it was really irritated down there,” the woman said. “It felt … horrible and still does hurt.”
Still in the hospital, one of the woman’s friends noticed a bruise in her back.

“There was this huge welt in my back and I had no idea where that was from,” she said. “In the next day it hurt really bad, so it just kind of scared me that I didn’t feel that kind of force and not woke up or came to (sense).”

In the same week, the woman went to the Eau Claire Police Department and filed a report against the alleged assaulter and told her family everything that happened.

According to the Eau Claire Police Department, the sexual assault allegations in the FIJI house are still considered open investigation.

Recovery
After what happened to her, the woman said she thinks it will be hard to start dating again, but she has been able to look at guys and not think they are all “jerks, because they aren’t,” she said.

“(Now) I get scared really easily, and I honestly don’t think I can be with a guy physically for a really long time, unless I really trust him,” the woman said.

Moving forward, the woman said she plans to stay in Eau Claire, where she has the support of her friends.

“When I spend time with my friends it’s good and I feel happier,” she said.

With telling her story, the woman hopes students become more careful when going out and that sexual assault victims come forward, too.

“I think it’s really important (to come forward) and it has helped me realize that I can do something,” she said. “You have to be so careful and have to stay in groups; girls need to watch out for other girls too.”