[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          HARVARD RAPE VICTIM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, graduating from high school and going 
to college is an important goal for many, many American teenagers. 
College offers the promise of an education, new friends, and new 
experiences.
  When parents drop their children off at their new dorms, they are 
entrusting those universities with the well-being of their kids. The 
dark reality is that, in many cases, this trust is woefully misplaced.
  Mr. Speaker, approximately one in five women are sexually assaulted 
in college. That is one out of every five of our daughters, sisters, 
and friends. This shocking statistic would lead most people to assume 
that colleges have extensive protections to support those people on 
campus who may be sexually assaulted. This is just not the case.
  Last year one of these victims published an anonymous op-ed at 
Harvard about her attack. The title of her article was, ``It's Me, One 
of Your Statistics.'' She described the night of her attack.
  A friend invited her to his dorm room to study for an upcoming 
science midterm test. She thought nothing of it, but when she started 
to become uncomfortable, she decided it was important for her to leave. 
But he did not let her leave. He sexually assaulted her.
  After the attack, she ran to a friend's room for help. She refused to 
shower, knowing that she had to immediately get a rape kit done. 
Assuming the university would be able to help her, she called their 
health services department, but the news she received from them shocked 
her. Harvard University Health Services didn't provide rape kits. They 
didn't provide any post-rape care whatsoever. There was nothing they 
would or could do for her. The university essentially threw up their 
hands and just turned her away.
  She was forced to call an Uber and paid someone to drive her to the 
hospital across town. But once she arrived, there was no staff at the 
hospital trained to deal with sexual assault victims or trained to 
collect forensic evidence.
  Sexual assault forensic examiners, or SAFEs as they are called, are 
specifically trained to properly collect forensic evidence from victims 
and provide the victim with care and support that is sensitive to the 
trauma that they have experienced. She had to wait over 3 hours for 
somebody to arrive. This is unacceptable, and it is sad.
  It is estimated that less than 25 percent of victims of rape report 
their crimes. They fear this exact scenario, that they will be turned 
away, dismissed, ignored, or not believed.
  To address this problem I have introduced legislation that would 
require a hospital to provide access to a sexual assault forensic 
examiner or have a plan in place to quickly get a victim to a nearby 
hospital that can provide forensic services.
  This bill is named for Megan Rondini. It is called the Megan Rondini 
Act, in honor of a 21-year-old sexual assault victim who was denied 
proper post-rape treatment at a hospital in Alabama. This bill will 
ensure victims can access the care that they need.
  Megan's hospital didn't have a sexual assault nurse examiner on staff 
either, so when she reported the rape to the authorities, the 
authorities did not believe her. Anguished, Megan returned to Texas, 
despondent, and tragically took her own life. The only thing she knew 
for certain in her case was that she was failed by the university, the 
hospital, and the law enforcement agencies.
  Universities should have a sexual assault victim advocate on staff--
all universities. A SAFE should be available for victims at a nearby 
hospital, and law enforcement must quickly analyze sexual assault kits 
because there are hundreds sitting on the shelves all over the country 
that have never been tested.
  Mr. Speaker, sexual assault victims are people. They are mainly young 
people at universities. As the Harvard student said, they are not just 
statistics on a hospital spreadsheet. Society can no longer ignore the 
silent, painful cries for help of victims of rape on our college 
campuses anymore. These days need to end.
  And that is just the way it is.

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