"We had a date — or what I thought was a date," Diamond Delancy said.
Instead, she wound up being raped in a stairwell.
She was one of three students to share a personal story of sexual assault during Student Government’s first Survivors Speak Out Panel on Thursday night. As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week, the students spoke of their experiences to educate others on the prominence of sexual assault.
Delancy said people asked her why she didn’t run.
"In the point, you really don’t know what you’re going to do," the UF public relations and women’s studies senior said.
She is now applying to the Peace Corps, where she would be abroad for 27 months, the 20-year-old said.
"It’s really hard to say that you can’t do something because someone took that away from you," she said.
UF public relations senior Hiram Martinez-Cabrera also knew his assaulter. From the time he was 6 to 14, his stepfather abused him.
His stepfather provided the family with financial security, the 21-year-old said.
"I really saw this person as someone who provided something I never had," he said.
Over the years, it went from kissing to sex, he said.
"I woke up, I went to school, I was one type of Hiram," he said.
At night, he was someone else, he said.
"One time, he would record it; other times, he would have friends there," he said.
In eighth grade, he decided to tell someone, he said.
"My friend gave me three days to call the cops," he said.
When he showed up to school on March 26, 2008, he realized all of his teachers knew. When his mom came to pick him up, his stepfather was with her.
"He was handcuffed on the spot," he said.
That day, he told his mom what had been going on the past eight years, he said. Afterward, it was a year of court cases.
Because of his experiences, he said he isn’t confident in his queer identity.
Delancy said UF makes it the survivor’s job to find resources.
"UF also has a stance kind of that, ‘we can help you with this if it happens here,’" she said. "I still break down. I still have panic attacks."
Martinez-Cabrera said UF should have a sexual-assault support group.
Annie Carper, a victim advocate for University Police, said it’s important for students to be supportive of survivors.
"UF is not perfect — it’s not," she said. "Unfortunately, it’s real and it happens."
Paul Andrews Jr., a former UF HealthStreet employee, said listening to the students speak was powerful.
"It was very heavy," the 24-year-old said. "A lot of times I ended up having to focus on the floor."
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
