Olivia Petter, who says the Cornell University rape allegations “prompted” her to recall her own experiences with sexual assault.
Olivia Petter
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Olivia Petter
When Olivia Petter first heard the news of the sexual assault allegations at Cornell University, she was shocked by how familiar some parts of the story seemed.
“The more I learned, the more excited I got,” she said. “I think for me the worst part was seeing the group messages these boys allegedly sent to each other the night of the alleged rape.”
Reading these exchanges took the London-based author back to a boarding school in England, where she claims older boys targeted her and her friends from the age of 13.
“They would walk past us and whisper, ‘Fresh meat,'” Petter said. “They would rate us out of ten and shout numbers at us as we walked down to the dining room.” Petter said she remembers boys pulling down girls’ pants while they held their lunch trays, humiliating them in the school cafeteria.
After a party, when she was 17, she remembers a boy who “put his hand down my pants” while she was trying to fall asleep. “No preamble. We hadn’t kissed…and I was squirming, trying to get him to stop.”
“What people need to understand is that when something like this happens to you, it’s really hard to say no, let me go, because your body goes into panic mode,” she said. “You freeze up and it takes you a while to figure out what’s going on.”
“There were so many cases of sexual assault and we didn’t really recognize it at the time because we didn’t know the language,” she said, adding that this culture continued during her years in college.
Petter, now 32, is among those sharing their own experiences online in response to recent rape allegations that emerged at a Cornell University fraternity.
A former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe, sued the university and seven former students last month, alleging she was drugged and raped multiple times at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024, when she was 20 years old. Lawyers for some of the men have denied the accusations.
This case led to wider awareness of attitudes towards sexual violence. On social media, many women use the hashtag #IamJaneDoe to discuss their own experiences of sexual assault and rape.
The Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on Monday.
Heather Ainsworth/AP
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Heather Ainsworth/AP
Other universities have also recognized the problem. As the case became a national news story, the editorial board of The Pennsylvania daily — a student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania — published a recent article titled “Penn also has a problem with Cornell.”
For some survivors, following media coverage can feel like reliving an earlier assault, says Hannah Braunstein, a psychotherapist and trauma specialist based in Washington, DC. She says stories like these can bring back more than just memories for people who have been sexually assaulted.
“Suddenly they’re inundated with all this news and their own experience, through their memories or bodily sensations, starts to unfold for them. It can be absolutely horrific,” Braunstein said. “And it can immediately transport them back in time.”
For Erin Smith, this reaction was immediate. The yoga instructor and mindfulness coach, who lives in Winchester, Kentucky, first saw the Cornell news on social media and immediately searched for more details.
“I was so angry that I put my phone down and paced around my kitchen like a caged tiger,” Smith recalls. She says the story brought back the physical distress she remembered after being molested as a child.
“I had this feeling in my stomach that happened during my experience (when) I was 12,” said Smith, who is now 53.
Erin Smith, who said she was “enraged” after reading Cornell’s allegations.
Katherine Dooros/Katherine Dooros Photography
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Katherine Dooros/Katherine Dooros Photography
Braunstein says repeated exposure to stories like these can intensify emotions. Still, people may feel compelled to keep reading, hoping that more information will make them feel better.
“We continue to seek more information because we believe that if we understand every detail, we will finally feel better inside,” she said. “But often it does the opposite and keeps people internally activated.”
Braunstein recommends using a timer to limit checking the news or social media to five minutes per day. When someone feels overwhelmed, she suggests turning their attention to their immediate surroundings.
“One of the things I talk about with my clients in my office is using sight first, looking around the room and calling out what you see, noticing what you’re hearing,” she said. “Feel your feet on the ground. It’s a grounding technique that works.”
Smith said she finally recognized that she needed a break from social media comments. Spending time outside, being with her dog, and playing guitar helped her feel calmer. But, she says, the anger remains, so she started writing about it.
Petter also turned to writing. As she continues to follow the case, she wants to use her anger to start a dialogue around sexual assault.
“I want to hold on to rage because I think rage is powerful and will allow me to have these conversations with the people in our lives,” she said. “And when I say people, I mean men.”
Petter says she wants men to also have these conversations with each other and challenge derogatory comments about women within their own friend groups, including online.
For Smith, the Cornell case feels personal because it brings many sexual assault survivors back to their own experiences.
“I think that’s why so many women are triggered right now, because Jane Doe is all of us.” she said. “We all have some kind of story.”
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