A recent issue in the news is the story of Elizabeth Seeberg. She was a 19 year-old girl who attended St. Mary’s College, a sister school of Notre Dame.
In the beginning of the school year, she was sexually assaulted by a Notre Dame football player. The following day, she reported the incident to the Notre Dame police, who neither took action, nor made the incident public knowledge. Nine days later, Elizabeth was found dead after having overdosed on medication she had been taking.
Even when the investigation of her death was taking place, the Notre Dame police still did not inform the county of the report Elizabeth made over a week earlier. It wasn’t until two months later that the Notre Dame police finally shared the report with a county prosecutor.
According to the second article below, Notre Dame police apparently forward all sexual assault cases to prosecutors for action to be taken, if it is considered necessary.
Why was it not forwarded sooner? Whatever the reason was, it was meaningless. There is no excuse for failing to acknowledge sexual violence. It took a lot of strength for Elizabeth to report the incident in the first place. To have her case put on the backburner until much later is absolutely ridiculous. Based on this incident, the Notre Dame police should definitely reconsider how they handle sexual assault cases.
-Lindsay
1st article:
2nd article:
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