A student’s story of pack rape in Rolling Stone magazine has shaken US fraternity culture to the core

SHE was lured into a bedroom and pack-raped. Now, days after Rolling Stone magazine exposed Jackie’s harrowing ordeal, the US university party culture has imploded.

A SPIKED drink was the first sign of trouble. Then enduring a pack-rape by seven men proved to be the worst three hours of her life. But “Jackie” never dreamt she’d also have to fight years of denial and cover-up.

The brutal pack-rape of a Virginia University student at a 2012 fraternity party has finally resulted in an embarrassing backdown by administrators and the cancellation of all official fraternity parties as a prominent “party” season approaches.

The response comes after Rolling Stone magazine published a victim’s harrowing account of trying to confront the university and find justice.

When a UVA student tried to hold the men who raped her at a frat party accountable, new abuses began: http://t.co/UuUbHTwXDV

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 19, 2014

Trigger point

It all started innocently enough.

“Jackie” — not her real name — was 18 years old and fresh to the prestigious university.

Her “crush” had invited her to her first fraternity party at his high-profile University of Virginia Phi Kappa Psi chapter house.

It seemed like a real opportunity to make headway with the “in” crowd.

After all, the university’s unofficial motto was “studious by day, wild by night”.

It was what she expected: A rowdy, crowded space overflowing with alcohol. But she could tell the punch was spiked: So she spilt it.

“Want to go upstairs where it’s quieter?” came the seemingly chivalrous offer from her date. She’d met him during lifeguard duty at the pool.

A weekend of protest at UVA as our rape investigation jolts the campus: http://t.co/qgimy50dWb

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 24, 2014

Instead, she was grabbed and dragged into a darkened, marijuana smoke-filled room.

It was a pack rape. But it was also an initiation ceremony: “Brothers” were compelled to join in.

She did not escape until after 3am.

Jackie didn’t go straight to police — she feared, as so many rape victims tragically do, that it would be the end of her reputation. Instead, she approached the school’s heavily promoted alternative — the Sexual Misconduct Board.

She was to encounter a system of concealment and denial.

Ironically, Playboy in 2012 tagged the University of Virginia as the United States’ No. 1 “Party School”.

Mixed messages ... A few postings on the door of Peabody Hall related to the Phi Kappa Psi gang rape allegations at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Source: AP

Belated response

It took almost three years — and news of the impending Rolling Stone article — before the genteel university administration resolved to address the case in the manner its own policies dictated.

This week’s belated response: To shut down all fraternity clubs over the Thanksgiving and winter holiday period through to January 9.

Four individuals arrested for trespassing at Phi Kappa Psi protest earlier this afternoon: http://t.co/DNBH6qOc4c pic.twitter.com/PmIORXs2SL

— The Cavalier Daily (@cavalierdaily) November 22, 2014

“There are individuals in our community who know what happened that night, and I am calling on them to come forward to the police to report the facts,” University of Virginia School President Teresa Sullivan said. “Only you can shed light on the truth, and it is your responsibility to do so.”

It’s already being touted as too little, too late.

And the motivation may not be justice.

More graffiti strung along the outside of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at UVA. pic.twitter.com/dvoza7OIGM

— DeliaDAmbra29 (@DeliaDAmbra29) November 20, 2014

Oddly, the University of Virginia has reportedly appointed a former Phi Kappa Psi member to review its sexual assault policy.

It is now one of 86 US universities under federal investigation for systematic failure to respond to rape complaints.

Jackie’s complaint is by no means unique. As a result, the fraternity party culture is coming under increasing public, and official, scrutiny around the country.

“Party School” ... Jalen Ross, president of the University of Virginia student council, ponders a question during a news conference. Source: AP

Peer pressure

Jackie is expecting a backlash. A big one.

Many of her closest friends had told her that going public would be a betrayal.

“One of my roommates said, ‘Do you want to be responsible for something that’s gonna paint UVA in a bad light?’” she told Rolling Stone. “But I said, ‘UVA has flown under the radar for so long, someone has to say something about it, or else it’s gonna be this system that keeps perpetuating!’ My friend just said, ‘You have to remember where your loyalty lies’.”

Phi Kappa Psi members and University offices face unspecified threats, fraternity brothers find alternative housing http://t.co/GlAill8av7

— Cavalier Daily News (@CavDailyNews) November 24, 2014

Jackie wasn’t the university’s only fraternity rape victim. But the school refused to reveal how many, when or where.

Rolling Stone found Jackie’s fellow victims were equally loath to detail their experiences.

“At UVA, rapes are kept quiet, both by students — who brush off sexual assaults as regrettable but inevitable casualties of their cherished party culture — and by an administration that critics say is less concerned with protecting students than it is with protecting its own reputation from scandal,” the article states.

Official Fraternity statement regarding today's Rolling Stone article. http://t.co/Ps815o93Xb

— Phi Kappa Psi HQ (@PhiKappaPsi) November 19, 2014

The national office of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity disagrees: “To our knowledge there have been no criminal investigations or charges of sexual assault brought against any member of the chapter.”

Since the article, a steady stream of women have been contacting the magazine to say they’d also been assaulted while attending fraternity parties.