Many students at the University of Notre Dame woke up last Monday morning to “shares” on their Facebook newsfeeds of an article featured in the Chicago Tribune entitled “NFL teams can’t take Prince Shembo’s word for it.”
The article detailed the NFL scouting combine’s search into football recruit Prince Shembo’s past, and the accusations against him in light of the suicide of Saint Mary’s College student Lizzy Seeberg back in 2010.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Shembo, a former Notre Dame linebacker, addressed the allegations for the first time at the combine in Indianapolis. He admitted that he was the player investigated in 2010 after Seeberg alleged she was inappropriately touched.
“I’m innocent,” Shembo said, in a report from ESPN.com. “I didn’t do anything. I’m, pretty much, I’m the one who ended it and pretty much told the girl that we should stop, that we shouldn’t be doing this and that’s what happened. So, I don’t know.”
Shembo at NFL Combine in Indinapolis, IN. Photo Source
Seeberg reported the incident four days after its occurrence on September 6th, 2010. Lizzy Seeberg received a text message from one of Shembo’s friends in the days after the incident that warned her “Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea.”
On September 10th, she committed suicide.
Investigations into Seeberg’s death by local authorities and the Notre Dame administration were criticized by the Seeberg family, as well as various media outlets.
The confession rekindled the events of 2010 investigation on campus, and ignited a firestorm of speculation from students. From the Facebook community’s shares and comments on the story, to articles in Notre Dame/Saint Mary’s student newspaper The Observer honoring Seeberg’s memory, the events of 2010 once again brought to light the attitudes of sexual assaults on college campuses.
Because of the Seeberg case, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation on Notre Dame’s handling of sexual assault cases, and Notre Dame agreed to reform its policies of handling assaults.
Notre Dame’s student handbook, du Lac: A Guide to Student Life, outlines the policies and procedures taken when investigating incidents of sexual conduct and sexual assault. Furthermore, the University “encourages students to report any incident of sexual misconduct or sexual assault. Notre Dame takes such reports very seriously.”
The true question at hand is whether or not these measures, or those undertaken by any college campus, are truly enough to help victims. The tragedy of the Seeberg case is how its handling may have affected other victims of assault and their desire to come forward. The national attention from this case exposed many disturbing trends in society’s attitudes towards victims of sexual assault and begs the question: How many victims have kept their experiences quiet, for fear of the backlash surrounding their accusations?
Especially in situations where the accused is publicly prominent, this case bodes ill for victims who may wish to come forward.
Let’s start a movement. Photo Source
In a 2012 article by the magazine Campus Safety, more than half of raped college women tell no one of their victimization. Perhaps it is the attitudes of campus communities, and the backlash accusers often face from the media, friends, and the public, that stop them from coming forward. It would seem that public sanctions against the accused, not fear of repercussions from the accuser, are potentially what is stopping more victims from coming forward.
“Victim blaming” occurs when victims of a crime or wrongful act are blamed for what happened to them. It is imperative that a cultural shift begins to stop this practice. Only when this happens can more victims begin to come forward with their stories without fear of disapproval.
While no one can ever truly know the factors at play in the Seeberg case, this tragedy and its implications ripple through college communities across the nation. The reemergence of this case can contribute to the battle against societal attitudes towards victims of assault.
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