Yahoo Lifestyle Columbia Students Carry Around Mattresses In Support Of Girl Who Was Raped On Campus
A Columbia University student made headlines recently when she began carrying her mattress around campus in protest of the fact her rapist is still attending the school.
Emma Sulkowicz was sexually assaulted by a fellow student in her own dorm room two years ago, and says that ever since, she's lived in fear it will happen again because police and campus security have ignored her claims.
Sulkowicz has since turned the ordeal into a thesis for her senior art project, which she's aptly titled, 'Mattress Performance: Carrying that weight'. She has committed to carrying around a twin-size dorm mattress everywhere she goes on campus, to classes and appointments, "for as long as I attend the same school as my rapist."
Her case caused a stir around the world, and now it seems fellow Columbia students are uniting with Sulkowicz to further highlight the issue, with a group of students committing to to helping her carry the mattress to class until her performance piece ends.
"I like the fact that we can step up and share the weight with her - that she doesn't have to do this all alone," one student told the Columbia Spectator.
In addition, a number also brought their own mattresses to campus in protest of the administrations faulty sexual assault policies.
Holding signs that read 'CU has a rape problem', and 'Carry that weight', students joined together in what was one of the university's most prominent rallies against rape on campus.
Unfortunately, Sulkowicz's case isn't out of the ordinary: the US Department of Justice estimates that one in five female students will be the victim of a sexual assault, and she's one of three students who reported the same student had sexually harassed them.
Even more disturbingly, she's just one of two dozen students who have lodged a federal complaint against Columbia University over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.
Source: Twitter
Emma Sulkowicz carrying her mattress around campus at Columbia University. Photo: YouTube.
RELATED:
New York student carrying mattress
