An anonymous Facebook post
bragging of the possible gang rape of a Utah State University student has
prompted an investigation — and warnings from administrators to students about the perils of social media.
The comment, posted
Wednesday on page dedicated to “USU Confessions,” claims that a “train” of
students “all took turns while it was dark” with a member of the Kappa Delta
sorority.
“I don’t think she knows,”
the poster concluded.
Student conduct officer
Krystin Deschamps has asked members of the Student Health Services Office,
Sexual Assault & Anti-Violence Office and USU Police Department to
investigate the post.
“I suspect that 85 percent
of these posts are not true at all,” Deschamps said. “But we can’t hear that
somebody may have been raped and not do anything about it.”
Deschamps said the school has
a duty to exhaustively investigate such claims.
“It’s a violation of federal
law if the university knows or should have known about a sexual assault and
didn’t do anything about it,” Deschamps said. “The institution could be in
serious trouble. We could be investigated by the Committee of Civil Rights and
have to pay a lot of money in damages if we were found in violation.”
Student Health Service
prevention specialist Ryan Barfuss said the investigation not only brought up
concerns about the declared rape but also the issue of normalizing drug and
alcohol use on the page, which has more than 1,900 followers. He said many
posts glorify getting stoned and drunk, especially on USU’s campus.
“It’s maybe 1 percent of
students that might be doing that,” Barfuss said. “But all the posts make it
seem like everyone it doing it and that worries me.”
Barfuss said he is also concerned
about those “throwing out” names of people they believe wrote the post.
“For example someone saying,
‘that post is about John Doe,’ but what if it wasn’t John Doe?” Barfuss said.
“You have to worry about ruining their reputation.”
SAVVI coordinator Monica
Bailey said those who post other people’s names in relation to a confession are
not thinking beyond that moment.
“Students need to remember
that the things they say, true or false, implicate and can endanger not only
the wellbeing but the professional standing of other people,” Bailey
said.
Bailey noted the page is in
the public domain.
“I would caution students
that it’s not going to be completely anonymous and it’s not harmless,” Bailey
said. “Facebook is not private.”
Barfuss said that if someone
is going to post on the page, they need to be prepared for the
consequences.
“Facebook cooperates with
law enforcement, so people have to be worried,” Barfuss said. “You have to be
worried about anything you post on the internet not just what you post on Facebook.
Posts can always be tracked back to your specific computer.”
Deschamps said the goal of
the school is not to shut down the page.
“On one hand I feel like
it’s college students being college students, I get that,” Deschamps said.
“Students want to blow off steam, I get that. I read between the lines I see
people who feel isolated. I suspect the intention behind this website is to
give people a forum to go to express themselves, but it really is a hostile
environment.”
Barfuss said those who post
need to censor what they are putting on the page.
“Some of them are good
intentioned and some of them are just crude, rude and just crazy,” Barfuss
said. “There are small glimpses of humanity where somebody sticks up for
someone, but they’re the minority.”
Barfuss said this kind of an
issue has never been dealt with on such a public level before.
“The social media brings us
such a new tool to the table,” Barfuss said. “People can use it together or
against each other.”
Deschamps hopes the page
will run its course without the school needing to get involved anymore than it
already is. She said the investigation of the rape post will continue.
“I hope and pray it is not
true,” Deschamps said. “If it’s something that did happen to her we will do
whatever we can to support her.”
Jessica Hinrichs, Seth
Merrill, Grady Smith and Teresa Gutierrez contributed to this
article.
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