Thank you
printing Professor Johns' much needed column (“Rape victims find indifference,”
Feb. 7). I am a volunteer rape crisis counselor with Refuge House's Sexual
Violence Crisis Outreach Program and Johns' column really struck a nerve with
me.
Last
semester, I went out on a call one Sunday morning. The victim I found at TMH
was a first-year FSU student. She had been raped by an FSU fraternity member in
a fraternity house bedroom on FSU's campus. She refused to report the incident.
She was frightened about possible retaliation and further humiliation. She also
felt that nothing would be done and that she would be the one to suffer, not
the perpetrator. I am deeply disturbed by the nonresponse of the university
community.
Recent
Tallahassee Democrat articles have talked about how women can work to be
safer. However, I have seen little call for increased education for the men in
our community. Not only must men and women be partners in preventing rape, but
men must know that if they do rape, it will not be tolerated, and that the
legal system will render a swift and appropriate penalty.
RACHEL SUTZ