Suicide
victim's mother discusses depression, hope
By
Kristen Wooley
Daily Forty Niner
Andrea Cooper spoke Monday night to a room
of Cal State Long Beach students about the
rape and later suicide of her 20-year-old
daughter.
"Kristin's Story," the name of
the presentation, was a detailed account
of the night eight years ago when Cooper
and her husband found their only child dead
in the family room of their home, with a
gun in her hand that had lodged a bullet
into her own brain.
"I'll
never forget that the song 'You Outta Know'
by Alanis Morissette, was blaring from the
CD player," Cooper said.
When
friends and family had asked the Cooper's
why she had done it, they said they thought
it might be because her boyfriend had broken
up with her a few months before that, when
in fact they were in for a horrifying surprise.
"There
was no suicide note but the police had taken
Kristin's journal as evidence," Cooper
said. "When we got it back two weeks
later, inside was detailed writing of what
it was like being raped."
Cooper
choked up as she recited a poem from Kristin's
journal that talked about violation, hopelessness
and a fear of the shadow over her.
"Sexual
Assault is a silent crime and it continues
to happen because it is silent," said
Roshni Chabra, Operations Manager at the
Sexual Assault Crisis Agency.
Chabra
went on to say that it is the one crime
where the victim often gets blamed.
For
Kristin, her mother believes, it was hardest
when the love of her life broke up with
her because he couldn't handle the rape
that had occurred when a good friend of
Kristin's attacked her after a party.
"You
have to look out for the signs of depression,"
Cooper said. "You have to watch for
things like loss of appetite, lack of sleep,
sudden unhappiness about everything in life.
Kristin had a lot of good friends that just
didn't know how to help her."
One
in three women will be raped in her lifetime,
Cooper said, and 46 percent of those women
will never tell their story. She went on
to say that more than 50 percent of college
women have come in contact with sexual aggression.
"You
go away from this presentation feeling aware
and prepared to look out for certain kinds
of symptoms," said Lynne Coenen, assistant
director at the women's resource center.
At
the Women's Resource Center, we have crisis
intervention, and fliers to give out. We
have support groups through Counseling and
Psychological Services, self defense workshops
and basic tools and techniques to avoid
assault. We hear about mainly first-year
students here being assaulted, when friends
come in looking for ways to help, Coenen
said.
"It
is very educational on what to do when rape,
depression and suicide happen and how to
utilize your resources. It was a personal
testimony and there is nothing more real
than that," Whitney Prenger, vice president
of programming in Pan Hellenic, said.
Cooper
said that she wasn't able to help her daughter,
"but if at least three of you in this
audience have learned something about rape,
depression and suicide, than I have served
my purpose."
"There
was no suicide note but the police had taken
Kristin's journal as evidence. When we got
it back two weeks later, inside was detailed
writing of what it was like being raped."
-- Andrea Cooper, mother of suicide victim
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