LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeberg was a college freshman with a wide-open smile who built houses with Habitat for Humanity and hoped to become a nurse. Lizzy also suffered from depression, and 10 days after telling friends and campus cops that she’d been sexually assaulted by a University of Notre Dame football player, rape crisis volunteers who knew she had missed a counseling session found her barely breathing in her dorm room.
Not long after the semester began, on the evening of Aug. 31, Seeberg told her friends at St. Mary’s College, the all-women’s school across the road from Notre Dame, that she had been assaulted but not raped in an attack that was interrupted by a knock on a dorm-room door. That same night, she sat down and hand-wrote an account of all that had happened, and the next day made a full report to the Notre Dame cops. She also sought treatment at a hospital, where she submitted to DNA testing and accepted an offer of counseling.
The whole problem with having a team you root for, whether in sports or in politics, is that unless you are fan enough to believe that only the guys on the other side could ever do anything wrong, your own team will at some point behave in a way that does not exactly make you feel like cheering. But it’s what happens then that defines us. And if the school does have information that would exonerate the player, and thus the whole team, this would be an excellent time to produce it.
From my own personal experience, I will say that the message to women at any level in the federal system is “Do not complain.” I had a similar incident occur where I was drugged ten years after reporting an incident regarding a college athlete. I am shocked that not only the incident occurred, which was similar to the female victim here, but that the man or some type of lobby for the college was allowed to stalk and harass me for ten years. This is a major problem. When I reported the drugging, I was told that it had to be a medication interaction. I do not take any medication, and I think they had the wrong person. This is ten years after the initial report that I made after seeing the man target other female minorities. There is a heavy connection between stalking and Native American women, but I think the problem here is how universities use some pretty illegal means by which to support their institutions. Also the man who attacked her most likely stalked her, and this might have been a paid attempt on her life by a professional. It would make it seem like a pro athlete paid someone or committed a crime as if he/she was stupid. In reality, it is the university. No one overdoses on anti-depressants. In my opinion, it was something placed into an open beverage. After reporting the incident, I have had AT LEAST three incidents where I have been drugged. I have always thought they were mistaken identity, because I look just like many other women and I really meant the man no harm. I waited some time before reporting the incident, and was told that I could do nothing now about the harassment because I did not call police immediately. It appears if one does call the police as a responsible adult would, the situation appears worse. I think we need to assign security at the State-level for both accuser and suspect. The suspect university will have state and federal resources at hand to support attempts on the accuser’s life. Again, it appears like the university wants to make it look like an athlete would be paying someone to do this as if he/she was low-brow or immoral. It’s the university. Finally, the message I have received is that it is best not to complain. Professional security staff indicated I should get a gun and I support the initiative to allow divinity students to carry weapons on campus. Overall, both suspect and accuser should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon. The State should mandate security for both parties for at least eighteen months, so there is a level playing field as far as resources go.