57 men read in a chat what 7 Cornell university students were doing to a classmate for 7 hours, and not one of them called the police
That is at the heart of the case of “the 7 from Cornell”, which went viral in recent days. Seven university students were accused of attacking a classmate, a young woman identified in the case files as Jane Doe.
As it was happening, they were recounting what they were doing in a group chat with 57 other men. The messages came in, were read, and no one stopped them. No one said it was wrong.
The story reminded many people of another that had already shaken the world: that of Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman whose husband drugged her for nearly a decade, from 2011 to 2020, so that more than 50 men could abuse her. Back then, too, dozens of men knew and stood by.
That is why the debate is no longer just about the perpetrators, but about everyone who watches and stays silent.
Staying silent, sitting on the fence, or not confronting friends when they do something horrible is also a form of complicity, say those driving the discussion. And today, it is seven university students and a chat. How
many more will it take for someone to break the silence?
