The Hunting Ground

The Documentary I chose to watch was The Hunting Ground.

 1. Was there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry? Curious? Delighted? Motivated?). Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to how it affected you. Don’t hold back.

There were two scenes that got to me the most.  The first one is about a girl named Lizzy Seeberg who was a student at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN.  She was assaulted by a Notre Dame football player and even though she reported it the next day the school did nothing about it.  She developed anxiety and depression from the situation and ended up taking her own life on September 10th, 2010. This part of the documentary made me very upset.  The fact that this young, happy, bright girl took her own life because her school failed to help her is disgusting.  The school didn't help because he was a popular football player.

The second part of the documentary that got to me was when we met Rachel who is also a student at St. Mary's College.  She was also assaulted like the many girls you see throughout the film.  Rachel explains how she is a nanny for two young girls and how she is coming forward about her assault because she doesn't want those two girls to experience the pain she is going through in the future.  She wants change at colleges when it comes to holding rapists responsible so that it doesn't happen to future generations of girls.  This scene made me tear up because I want to be a preschool teacher and I am very close with the younger girls at my dance studio and just thinking that it could be them someday broke my heart.

2. What surprised you? Why do you think it caught you off guard?

I was surprised by the amount of cases that go without justice.  You would think that colleges or any school would care immensely about the safety and well-being of their students.

3. What questions remain after the viewing? What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did they “pop up” in your life in unexpected ways? When? How? What was that like?

I want to know if any colleges near us or other colleges in Indiana have a problem like this.  I hope that PNW would do the right thing when it comes to sexual assault cases. 

4. Why might we avoid including research in our summaries? What could go wrong?

We might want to avoid research because it can persuade our thoughts on the topic.  After writing our summaries, I think it would be interesting to see how others interpret the documentary.