At that moment she decided to press charges, but unfortunately he was found not guilty. “The burden of proof couldn’t prove that he penetrated even though the bruises and abrasions already demonstrated that I couldn’t have pushed up a tampon and torn up my cervix,” Medina said in the video.
Not only did she suffer this traumatic experience, but the fact that the school didn’t do anything and she would be forced to see him all over campus added to her frustration. “I expressed to the school multiple times that I can’t eat at the dining hall because he works there [and so] I haven’t eaten there in months,” Medina told HOY.
The university did absolutely nothing to shield her from her attacker. “They don’t care. I asked them if I could get his schedule or could if he get switched to another dining hall on campus. I’m not asking him to lose his job or anything, but I need to be able to eat,” she said.
Unfortunately the university didn’t even help her get a legal advocate for her to make an appeal on their decision, so by the time she had one, it was too late. When word spread on campus, other women came forward about being assaulted by the same man.
“More women are getting hurt,” she explained, “I would have been over it if it was just me. I was coming to terms with it, I stopped going out. I figured out how to cope with it…and to find out another woman got hurt just broke my heart because I fought so hard for that not to happen.”
Fortunately the rapist was found guilty of sexually assaulting another student, but she continues to fight and speak about her experience to warn others about how easily they too can become victims.