Story of a Survivor of Sexual Assault

Most female students think about personal safety and worry about sexual assaults, but few do much to prevent it, either because they simply do not know what to do, or have a false sense of personal safety..

Jacqueline is a junior at a very popular, highly regarded University. Her GPA is 4.0 and she is an amazing dancer, but most importantly, she is as kind as she is courageous, outgoing and considerate of others, which is why she has many friends who would do anything for her.

It is fairly late as the last few night classes are letting out. It’s getting dark outside. It’s late summer so it is still warm and pleasant, nice for a walk back to the dorm.

Her friends say goodbye as they all head home, or to the library or somewhere to get a late night snack before heading to their dorms or apartments. Two of her friends walk with her a little ways, then break off as they head in a different direction to their dorms.

Jaqueline feels safe as she smiles and says goodbye to her friends. In every direction there are hundreds, even thousands of students. By now, most of them are either inside a building or in their vehicles on their way to their apartments or dorms across campus or off campus. 

Jacqueline’s parents and even the school’s administration spoke with her and all the new students about their personal safety during her initial orientation a couple years ago. Everyone thinks about it and talks about when they hear about an incident, almost as if doing so will prevent it in the future.

Not everyone knows Jacqueline, but there is a camaraderie on campus that makes her feel safe. Although she knows there are an average of about one sexual assault a day reported on campuses of this size and many others not reported, she has walked this route hundreds of times and has never once felt her safety was in jeopardy or that anyone would dare try to sexually assault her out in the open.

Yes, there are areas that have less lighting and even a wooded area that initially gave her the creeps every time she walked through the area, but now, after hundreds of safe passages, even that area evokes much less fear or concern than it did initially. 

The University even has special outside phones on campus you can pick up and get campus security to accompany you to your dorm or check out an individual you think might be up to no good. 

As Jacqueline begins passing by the wooded area, she sees a person walking toward her. At first it looks like Josh, a guy she has known for the last year. He’s about 6’4” and 225 pounds. She thinks he is pretty good looking, but so far, they are just good friends. She is about to say, “Hi Josh” when she realizes it is not him, but someone else. 

She feels a little embarrassed and looks away, just as he lunges toward her, grabbing her by the throat with one hand, his other hand grabbing her by the hair on the back of her head. 

The pain and panic are immediate as he nearly lifts her off the ground. She tries to scream, but not a lot comes out.

“Shut up, or I’ll kill you!” he growls, as he forces her toward the wooded area. Her mind is in a frenzied panic as she realizes the gravity of her situation. She notices the darkness increase as he jerks her violently and slams her to the ground. 

Meanwhile, Josh and some friends are about 200 yards away. They are just leaving the Rec Center and are headed back to their dorm. Josh hears a loud siren sound and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone. His buddies hear the same sound on their phones and immediately look them as they all know what that sound means. 

At the same time, Jaqueline’s roommates and others in her dorm, less than 75 yards away from Jacqueline, are hearing the same sound and looking immediately at their phones. 

Farther away, at the campus Security Command Center, the same siren sound is going off and an individual is immediately speaking into a radio, giving commands, directions Jacqueline’s name and physical description to those he is communicating with.

Josh looks at his phone and sees Jacqueline. He also sees a satellite map with her current location, not far from where they are. They immediately sprint toward Jacqueline, yelling out her name as loudly as they can.

As they approach the dot on the map, indicating Jacquelin’s location, a person bursts from the wooded area, running full speed away from them and past 10 - 15 other students who are also running toward the wooded area.

Josh points and yell’s to his buddies, “Get him!”

Jacqueline is screaming Josh’s name and runs to him, tears of fear and now…joy, streaming down her face as Josh grabs her in his arms, followed by many others, her close friends, who engulf her in their love and concern for their friend.

Not far away, two security guards are running toward the scene, but still at least a hundred yards away. Josh’s friends are gaining on the attacker and see the security guys coming from the opposite direction and yell, “That’s him! That’s him! Get him!”

One of the security, a former linebacker on the University’s football team, cannot be evaded by the would-be rapist. He tackles him to the ground and the two guards, and a third who arrives, put him under arrest.

Thankfully, Jacqueline is OK and grateful that she had a Personal Safety GPS Tracking Device called the M.O.M. on her person, positioned such that she was able to activate it, even while being violently attacked. But now, she is safe and her phone is ringing,

She looks down and sees that it is her mom, calling from nearly 2,000 miles away. Her mother knows Jacqueline is OK because even though she got the “I’m in Danger” alert from her daughter and her first three calls were not answered, before she was able to make her fourth call, she received a second alert from her daughter, indicating that she was OK.

Fortunately, the advanced GPS personal safety alert technology used in the device, did not only alert the campus security and the parents, but also anyone within a one mile radius of Jacqueline at the time of the alert, as long as they had the free app, even if they were not in her app contacts, as was the case with Josh and his buddies as well as the campus security, in this case.