PAVE Founder Angela Rose in her weekly video blog.
Donate to Landen Gambill: http://www.gofundme.com/3ivgmg
When rape survivor Landen Gambill decided to report her rape to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she expected to be protected and treated fairly. After the University encouraged Landen to file a complaint in the University’s student-run Honor System, whose representative wrongly told Landen that she could not go to the police and file an Honor Court complaint at the same time, Landen was put through a mishandled, traumatic Honor Court trial in which she was blamed for being raped, told that women must leave their abusers the first time they are raped in order for the rape to be legitimate, and told not to show emotion during the trial because it was “distracting”—even though her rapist was allowed to cry. Landen’s abuser was found not guilty of sexual invasion and guilty of sexual harassment; however, that did not stop the University from placing her abuser in a residence hall in close proximity to Landen’s, despite her no-contact order against him. When Landen decided to join four other women from UNC in a Title IX Complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at the US Department of Education, the last thing she expected was for the University to charge her with an Honor Code violation for “intimidating” and “creating a disparaging environment” for her abuser—with the threat of expulsion as a result. Due to the dedicated advocacy of Clay Turner, Landen’s attorney, the Honor Court charge was dropped in June 2013 and the Office of Civil Rights has launched an investigation into the retaliation complaint. Now Landen needs your help paying for legal fees in order to complete the pursuit of justice for herself and survivors of sexual violence at colleges across the country.
