[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CARE FOR UNIVERSITY RAPE VICTIMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, ever since she was a little girl, 
Silvana loved to play hockey. In her Massachusetts hometown, hockey was 
more of a way of life than just a sport.
  Her parents knew she was talented, and supported her dream to play 
even in college. When she was offered a scholarship in 2011, to be the 
goalie for the University of Connecticut, Silvana felt like all of her 
dreams had come true, so she eagerly accepted.
  She pulled out of her driveway with her packed clothes and hockey 
gear, but she could have never known that in a few days her life would 
change forever. She could not have foreseen how a lifetime of hard work 
and ambition would suddenly disappear tragically.
  Like all new students, she was eager to immerse herself in her new 
college life. On the third day at the university, Silvana went to a 
house party with some new friends she met. But, after two drinks, she 
began to feel dizzy, numb, and lethargic. She quickly lost the ability 
to walk, and she became very ill. As she drifted out of consciousness, 
a male hockey player at the party instructed others to carry her to his 
bedroom. When she woke up, she found him on top of her, sexually 
assaulting her.
  She immediately turned to the university for help and reported the 
assault at The Women's Center. But the counselor did not tell her to 
call the police, advise her to press charges, or help her in any way.
  Silvana then went to the on-campus doctor. But instead of treating 
her like a victim and offering her the care and support she needed, the 
doctor told her that he didn't want to know who assaulted her. Get 
this, Mr. Speaker: the doctor told her, the remedy was for her to 
transfer to another university. This is awful.
  One in five women on our university campuses are sexually assaulted. 
Of those, less than 25 percent even report the rape.
  It took an extraordinary amount of courage for Silvana to report that 
sexual assault, especially to multiple people she didn't even know. She 
was offered no help or no support by anyone. She was alone, and she 
felt it.
  The doctor wasn't trained to deal with rape victims and made it clear 
he wanted nothing more to do with Silvana. The university clearly 
viewed Silvana as a burden, just another statistic they didn't want to 
deal with.
  Mr. Speaker, universities in the United States should be required to 
have a victim advocate on staff, a sexual assault victim advocate. 
Also, to ensure that this doesn't happen to more victims at hospitals, 
I have introduced legislation that would require a hospital to provide 
access to a staffer--it is called a SAFE, sexual assault forensic 
examiner--who is trained to provide care and be sensitive to trauma 
rape victims, or have a plan to get that victim to a nearby hospital 
that does. Universities and nearby hospitals need to work together to 
make sure that rape victims are treated appropriately when they are 
assaulted on campus.
  The bill that I just mentioned is named the Megan Rondini Act. It is 
in honor of a college sexual assault victim on the University of 
Alabama campus, who was a Texas student, who was denied access to post-
rape treatment at a hospital. The university didn't help her, and the 
local law enforcement didn't help her.

                              {time}  1015

  In Megan's case, because she was alone and abandoned by all three of 
those entities, when she returned to Texas, she later committed 
suicide.
  Anyway, after the rape of Silvana, the university left Silvana to 
pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She was traumatized and 
depressed. Claiming that she wasn't stable enough, the hockey coach 
removed her from the team. She never played a single game of hockey in 
college. She withdrew from the University of Connecticut shortly 
thereafter, but her rapist stayed on his hockey team and played for the 
university. Silvana had to successfully sue the university to get 
justice. She had to take the matter to court, where society and our 
justice system should have helped her initially.
  Mr. Speaker, rape is never the fault of the victim, yet Silvana felt 
that she was the one being blamed for what happened to her.
  We as a society must demand our universities and hospitals protect 
and care for sexual assault victims. No longer should they be allowed 
to suffer alone and be abandoned. No more excuses.
  And that is just the way it is.

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