Answering the Call

Survivors and their allies protest rape culture at Fresno State and the Greek Row

The crowd of over 100 people walks past Bulldog Stadium as they made their way to greek row. Photo by Ram Reyes

She said it was the kind of call she never wanted to receive. A mother picked up the phone, and the police told her that her daughter was being tested for forensic evidence of rape. 

Her daughter, a now former Fresno State student, alleges that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a Kappa Sigma fraternity party. She was 17, and it was Jan. 31, 2020. She alleged that two days later she was sexually assaulted again, this time by an old friend on Superbowl Sunday. 

In February, she reported both incidents to the police, and in March recorded a YouTube video detailing the assaults. 

The college hastily placed Kappa Sigma and the student’s sorority, Phi Mu, on suspension. 

Five months later, the former Fresno State student was in a Title IX hearing, and she had become a symbol, as more than 125 people gathered to protest sexual violence and rape culture at Fresno State—and the fraternities and sororities that activists say enabled both. And the college administration that they say hasn’t done enough. 

They were summoned by a tweet. “I will be protesting my justice,” the woman wrote. She has a sizable Twitter following, and her allegations have been covered extensively in the media. She asked the community to come out for her, and they answered her call. 

But the road from the earliest days of the incidents to this protest has been a difficult one for the mother who answered that phone. “I’m here in support of my daughter,” she said. “My daughter is the victim here.” 

The mother of the alleged victim holds up a sign in front of the Fresno State sign on Shaw and Cedar. Photo by Ram Reyes

She is highly critical of the Greek culture that she believes is toxic, and at least in part responsible for enabling the alleged abuse. “We want the fraternities closed. We want the sorority to be closed,” she said, until such a time that new curricula and procedures are in place to safeguard young women.

“It really hurt me a lot, what happened to my little sister,” her other daughter said. “We’re really close, and she’s like my best friend.”

The family is not alone in their grief and their anger. Activists and their allies gathered in 97 F degree heat for the sake of this woman, and all the other women who might face the same horrors. 

“I’m here because I was raped at my college, and I was kicked out because of it,” Mackenzey Bejar, a survivor and a soon to be Fresno State student, said. Her protest sign reads, “boys will be accountable for their actions.” 

“It’s messed up the way that they treat women when they investigate the crimes of men,” she said.  

Dominique Garcia agreed. “Because nobody wants to acknowledge that it’s a problem, because it’s always the victim’s problem, right? ‘What were you wearing? Were you intoxicated? Were you under the influence?’”

D’Aungillique Jackson, president of the Fresno State chapter of the NAACP, armed with her bullhorn, led the protest as they marched their way to frat row, past the frat houses, and all the way to the Phi Mu Eta Zeta sorority house.

With every step, they chanted. They called out to the alleged victim’s sorority house, who she says didn’t support her. “Phi Mu we needed you!” 

“They’re right in there,” Jackson said, as the protest reached the Kappa Sigma House. “They can hear us, whether they want to come out or not,” she said, even as onlooking fraternity brothers retreated into their homes. 

A woman cursed them out, echoed by many others. A man chanted “rape culture, you’re a vulture.” 

Despite sweltering heat and a long walk, the protest kept in high spirits. They sweat, and their voices strained, chants sometimes broke down, or didn’t reach the back of the crowd. Navigating the sidewalk without tripping into the street was sometimes difficult. But they persisted. 

Jackson thanked them for their persistence, for enduring the heat. She said that the march physically mirrored the psychological struggle of being a survivor.

A protester named Elijah Kelsey holds a sign that reads “Stop Blaming the Survivor.” He has sisters of his own, and a niece. He thinks about what it would be like to navigate the world in their shoes. “It’s insane. It shouldn’t be like that,” he said. 

The men in this crowd said universally that they were there to support survivors, and to support the woman at the center of the protest. They marched in lockstep with the women, one carried a protest sign cut to resemble a stop sign that read “STOP RAPE CULTURE.” Another’s said that Greek culture equals rape culture.  

Jackson told the crowd that she knew that men could also be raped, that she appreciated their support, and that she would march for them just as they marched for women. The group erupted in applause. 

“That’s the reason I have sunglasses on. Looking at all these people here—I know it’s one in five, but it’s different to see the numbers…”

-Jacqueline Ruby-Major

Jacqueline Ruby-Major, standing beside her own daughter, who couldn’t be more than 4, fought tears. “That’s the reason I have sunglasses on. Looking at all these people here—I know it’s one in five, but it’s different to see the numbers,” she said. “And I know my story, so if it’s anything like that, I just feel for these women, and these men because it happens to men too. And everyone in between.” 

Despite her absence from most of the protest, the shadow of the woman who alleged she was assaulted, and then assaulted again loomed large. Her story on YouTube touched and inspired another protester, Amalia Lopez. That video inspired Lopez to speak out, to answer her call. Lopez was even inspired to share her own story with the police.

“So I’m fighting for her, and I’m fighting for everyone who is in our situation,” she said.  

While her mother and her sister were there, the alleged victim was in her Title IX hearing, having difficult conversations, and making tough recommendations. She didn’t make it to the protest until five hours after it began. But her mother did not worry for her.

“Right now, my daughter, she’s strong,” she said. That morning, she had told her to put everything in God’s hands, and to just tell the truth of what happened. “Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that what you’re doing and what you’re saying is wrong.” 

While the figure at the center of this protest, who alleges that she was raped at a fraternity party, is a highly visible figure and even posted a YouTube video detailing her allegations publicly, and organized this protest publicly on Twitter where she has a strong presence, Five By Five Nine has chosen to refrain from identifying her and her family directly. 

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