October 21 — Noise
“That night, the knowledge of how difficult and permanently altered my future was didn’t faze me. I simply was reckoning with the process of dying on the inside. Unfortunately, the world wouldn’t let me die in peace.”
The next day, LA Times, NBC, CBS, university paper the Daily Trojan, and a multitude of other news networks picked the story up, and it became a national. Similarly, it became well discussed on social media. For members in the fraternity, it was impossible to avoid. Your phone blew up with texts either filled with hate or selfish inquiry or the occasional caring message.
My phone blew up after the email, and it continued the next few days. The news, campus organizations, and instagram activists caught on fast. Thursday morning, I tried to do work but was still in shock.
People were asking us to give interviews and like obviously we wanted to to like clear our own name, but legally we were advised not to say anything. So It was just difficult because at the same time that you want to tell everybody know everything you’re hearing about me isn’t true but you’re not allowed to.
As of right now, do not respond to anyone regarding the situation. That includes friends who are blowing your phone up trying to see what happened. We can’t make any formal or informal statements before getting legal advice.
Unfortunately, a vast majority of the images posted during this time were either instagram stories or have been deleted.
I remember going on social media and seeing like everyone calling us rapists everyone saying like we they wish that our children would be raped and like so that we would know how it felt or like they wish that we were all castrated so that we could never have any children or things like that that were just like so out of line but like you can’t even like you can’t be mad at it because they have a right to be angry so it was just like you felt hopeless.
Do you know frustrating it is when someone posts on their story “All men of Sigma Nu are complicit,” only to text me right after and say “but not you of course.”
We were walking you were crying and I was crying and yeah, it was like easily the worst easily the worst day of my life probably yeah, probably worst week because the fallout which it was just continuous.
Oh and XXXX called. Initially, she asked if I were a rapist, but then to ask if she could see me soon.
I remember not wanting to leave my room or like go to I don’t think I went to class that week like didn’t want to leave my room didn’t want to go to class didn’t want to go on social media.
