#Jameis winston the hunting ground code#
Harding determined last month there was not enough evidence to indicate Winston violated the FSU student code of conduct during his encounter with Kinsman.Įarlier this month, Kinsman filed a federal civil lawsuit as “Jane Doe” against FSU trustees, arguing the university violated her Title IX rights by refusing to properly investigate the incident. Winston and attorneys representing him have repeatedly denied Kinsman's allegation of rape, stating that the sexual encounter between the player and Kinsman was consensual. The state attorney’s office did not charge Winston with a crime, and retired Florida Supreme Court justice Major B. We hope our film puts pressure on these institutions to think more about their mission than the bottom line.The Orlando Sentinel has refrained from identifying Kinsman previously, in keeping with the newspaper's policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault cases unless they choose to be identified. It's what follows - when the school turns on them. In most cases it doesn't, and that is really traumatizing. "They trust and believe the institution will do the right thing. "Though the reality is that 19 of 20 charges is true, only one is a false report, the tendency with this crime is only to disbelieve, and that is very hard for survivors," Dick says. "Someone copping to it, that for us was pretty important," Dick says. The filmmakers put successful effort into finding a predator willing to go on camera and talk about his methods. One of the key points "The Hunting Ground" makes is that, as Ziering says, "in the vast majority of cases this is not a 'he said, she said,' situation this is a calculated ploy." "If the students know, you have to assume people in the administration know, so why isn't something done?" "Fraternities are in many ways wonderful organizations, but what did surprise us is that on a given campus students can tell you which fraternities are the dangerous ones," says Ziering. Kinsman is one of the subjects of The Hunting Ground. The film notes that the police in Tallahassee, where Florida State is located, did not investigate Kinsman's report for 10 months, which, the filmmakers say, is an example of the way the power of college sports to earn money and build fanatical loyalty works against women who report being raped by athletes.Īnother powerful institutional force with a vested financial interest in minimizing rape claims is what the filmmakers call "the American fraternity industry." Erica Kinsman, the woman who accused former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault in December 2012. No criminal charges were filed against him, and the school took no disciplinary action.) (Winston has claimed the sex was consensual. Kinsman's story of her experience with Winston is of a piece with the others, and her detailing of the specifics of the alleged event is chilling. I was so upset, she gave me her teddy bear." "Another one who broke my heart was a girl from Berkeley who hadn't told her parents yet. "I began to cry, I had to pull myself together," she remembers, tearing up again at the memory. Ziering, who did many of the interviews, was especially moved by talking to Tom Seeberg, whose daughter, Lizzy, committed suicide in the aftermath of her allegation of a sexual attack against Notre Dame football player Prince Shembo, who was never charged with a crime. One factor that was the same as in "The Invisible War" was the heartbreaking nature of the stories these women tell, and the tendency of colleges and universities to blame the victims when they choose to report alleged incidents. Even if you moved to another institution, you could be branded as a troublemaker."
"I was shocked at the reticence of the faculty and administrators to speak," says Ziering. So "Hunting Ground" spends considerable time with University of North Carolina students Annie Clark and Andrea Pino as they first file a Title IX anti-discrimination complaint against their school for how their rape allegations were handled, and then went on to found the nationwide organization End Rape on Campus.Īnother difference, the filmmakers say, was that the fear around this issue was greater than in the military, with college faculty and administrators being especially reluctant to talk on camera as institutions circled the wagons to protect their reputations and their bottom lines. Moreover, the filmmakers soon became aware that there were significant differences between the two subjects, a key one being that, Ziering says, "this issue was already starting to get public traction there was an emerging student movement we could follow and track in real time."