The names of our sources were changed to protect their anonymity.
She knew him before the drugs and the alcohol. She fell in love with the star basketball player with the world at his feet. All too quickly he turned into this person she had never seen before, pressuring her into partaking in hard drugs and alcohol.
It all started the year they both decided to become freshmen at Western Carolina University. Jessica saw him changing but still held onto this hope that he could still be the person she had fallen in love with. As with most epic loves, it is hard to believe that some people change for the worse, and the excuses she continued to tell herself were not going to last for much longer. One night was all it took for her to realize the man he had become.
He stumbled into Jessica’s room early one morning from partying a little too hard the previous night, having a mixed MDMA, alcohol, and marijuana looking for only one thing -sex. He would not stop until he succeeded. After telling him no repeatedly, he still continued.
He looked at her with a disgusted look on his face and said: “you’re acting like I’m raping you or something.” Violated, confused and desperate, Jessica didn’t know what to do.
“I don’t really know what else you would call this,” said Jessica in tears.
He just kept going.
Listen to her full story in the video below. Her voice has been altered and the image is blurred.
Filmed and edited by Morgan Miller.
Domestic violence and sexual assault often go hand-in-hand. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, nearly one in 10 women in the United States have been raped by an intimate partner in her lifetime. So what does this mean for survivors?
For Jessica, this meant never being able to fully trust a man and always being terrified of what lurked in the shadows of any future relationship. She is just one of many who have been domestically violated on WCU campus. Jessica never told anyone because she didn’t know where to turn to or who to talk to about what had happened to her that night.
If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence please contact the proper authorities. You can also reach out to the student ambassadors of sexual assault and domestic violence Christina Lynn Parker at (910)-985-0541 or at clparker2@catamount.wcu.edu or her fellow ambassador Kaylynn Wilson at kmwilson12@catamount.wcu.edu.
