Speaker warns about rape, suicide

Students gathered in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union Wednesday night to hear a mother speak about the danger of keeping silent.\nAt the event, called ‘Kristin’s Story,’ Andrea Cooper shared the story of her daughter Kristin’s rape in 1995 and how it ultimately resulted in Kristin’s suicide. The IU Student Association co-sponsored the event in collaboration with IU’s Panhellenic Association and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.\n“I thought it was good and real in-depth,” said junior Morgan Dower, a member of Alpha Chi Omega. “I felt what she was saying.”\nDower was not the only student who was moved by the speech. The speech’s effect was apparent in the standing ovation Cooper received at the end.\nCooper said Kristin, then 20 and a student at Baker University in Kansas, never told her parents she was raped by someone she knew. As a result, she fell into depression. When she told her boyfriend she was raped, he broke up with her. Not long after, she committed suicide in her home.\n“She was the most important thing in my life,” Cooper said. “As (parents) we are all afraid that we would lose our kids in an automobile accident, but never did I think I would lose my daughter to suicide.”\nCooper said that at the time of her daughter’s death she did not know suicide was so prevalent among college students. According to the American Association of Suicidology Web site, it is estimated that there are more than 1,000 suicides on college campuses a year. \nAs she flashed through photos of her daughter on a projector, Cooper read a poem she found in Kristin’s journal after she died on how it felt to be raped. Cooper then described how she had felt at the time, not knowing her daughter had been raped.\nStudents listened in silence as Cooper stressed the need for students to get help if they are raped or sexually assaulted. \n“If you are not comfortable telling your parents that’s fine, you don’t have to,” Cooper said. “But tell someone, get help.”\nCooper said 85 percent of raped women are raped by someone they know.\nWith the urge to get students to understand that reporting a rape is important, Cooper said it was too late to bring her daughter’s rapist to justice since Kristin was no longer living.\n“When we found out who raped her there was nothing the police could do because there was no proof,” Cooper said. “Kristin was not there to testify.”\nSince there were a few fraternity members in the audience, Cooper expressed that men need help on how to approach or deal with women who are rape victims. She also said friends have to listen, be very understanding and aware of signs friends may give as a clue to depression.\n“Had only girls showed up it (the speech) could not have as much of an impact,” said Kelsey Kincaid, an Alpha Phi member.\nIn a private interview, Cooper said in 10 years she has traveled to 300 schools and 25 conferences, telling students her daughter’s story. Her main goal is to get counseling for students who have experienced sexual assault. She said she first started talking to students in 1998 and never stopped.\n“I never once said I don’t want to do this,” Cooper said.\nCooper was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, and Kristin was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. When asked what she felt about what how her daughter would feel about her mom telling her story, Cooper said, smiling, that she’s not sure.\n“She might really be proud,” she said.