Tragedy highlights a hidden problem

When Andrea Cooper and her husband arrived home after a New Year's Eve party six years ago, they were relieved to see that their daughter Kristin was home, her car parked outside. But that relief only lasted a brief moment. Once they entered the house, they found their 20-year-old daughter lying on the living room floor -- having just shot and killed herself. Cooper related this story to over a hundred women last night in "Kristin's Story," an event sponsored by the Delta Delta Delta foundation, the Alpha Chi Omega foundation and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. Cooper spoke candidly of her daughter's suicide, which was prompted by acquaintance rape. The talk was designed to encourage those in attendance to seek help for themselves or their friends in instances of rape and depression. "That is the problem," Cooper said. "Nobody is talking about rape and it happens all the time." She added that rape is the most under-reported violent crime in America. "So many times women have been raped when they don't really realize they have," Cooper said following her talk. "They think because it's their boyfriend, you can't call it rape." "If my husband forced me to have sex, that's rape," she added. Kristin never reported her rape to authorities. It was only after her death that her parents found out through journal entries she had written "describing the rape and what it felt like," her mother said. Cooper uncovered the identity of the perpetrator of her daughter's rape when she "went into major mom detective mode," interviewing her daughter's friends for information. When she reported the man's identity to authorities, they told her there was nothing they could do without the testimony of her daughter. "Doesn't that just make you sick?" Cooper asked. Fifty percent of college females have experienced sexual aggression from an acquaintance, Cooper said, adding that a woman is raped every two minutes in the United States. Throughout her talk, Cooper displayed pictures of Kristin, a technique that audience members said made the story come to life. "Ms. Cooper just did a fabulous job," Penn Women's Center director Elena DiLapi said. "It was a face... the humanness was very much there." The Penn Women's Center provides counseling, crisis intervention, emergency housing and other services to rape victims and others in an attempt to "provide educational equity for women," DiLapi said. OFSA associate director for programming Debra Bonaminio, a friend of Cooper's, said that this was the first time Cooper has spoken at Penn, but that she hopes to invite her again in the future. "Andrea's message is unlike [anyone else's] because it's not a psychologist up there, it's a mother," she said. "She can reach out in ways that others can't." "I think that it's an important issue that does not get addressed often enough or publicly enough," College junior Sabrina Fenton said. "It affects more college women than anyone imagines." "I thought it was a moving testimony for all the women that attended," the tri-Delta sister added.