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Back Parachutes
Chapters (93)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Sixty-Six
  69. Sixty-Seven
  70. Sixty-Eight
  71. Sixty-Nine
  72. Seventy
  73. Seventy-One
  74. Seventy-Two
  75. Seventy-Three
  76. Seventy-Four
  77. Seventy-Five
  78. Seventy-Six
  79. Seventy-Seven
  80. Seventy-Eight
  81. Seventy-Nine
  82. Eighty
  83. Eighty-One
  84. Eighty-Two
  85. Eighty-Three
  86. Eighty-Four
  87. Eighty-Five
  88. Author’s Note
  89. Acknowledgments
  90. About the Author
  91. Books by Kelly Yang
  92. Back Ad
  93. About the Publisher

The next two and a half years became a delicate dance of hide-and-seek, tiptoeing around my attacker, asking friends if they saw him in the library, and studying his patterns of migration like a zoologist. It might have worked if we were in the jungle or a big city, but Harvard Law School spanned about a street and a half.

Finally, in my third year of law school, with graduation fast approaching, I decided I had to do something. I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing him at graduation. I didn’t want my immigrant parents to have to see him, to have to watch their daughter get her diploma while sharing a stage with the guy who sexually assaulted her. So I talked to the new dean of students as well as the new dean of Harvard Law School.

Despite all the warnings of how long it would take if I brought charges and how difficult the process would be, I decided to formally bring charges of sexual assault against my attacker to Harvard’s administrative board. Harvard’s admin board is its very own mini court system, the “jury” made up of faculty members and students. In order to proceed with the ad board, the law school required me to write and sign a document saying I would not bring a formal criminal complaint with the police and that I was proceeding only through the administrative board.

The case was emotionally draining. It required me to sit in a room in front of my attacker and listen for hours as he called me a liar. In the end, I lost. The university decided that there was not enough evidence to suspend or expel my attacker, despite the fact that I had gotten rape tests done, told the school nurse, switched dorms, and even written my attacker an email after the assault saying, “What you did to me was horrible, unwanted, and illegal” to which he had responded, “My heart is bleeding.”

Then, the other bomb dropped: the university was now investigating me for “malicious prosecution.” The days that followed were the darkest ever as I waited for the faculty to vote on whether to yank away my own diploma all because I dared bring up the fact that I was sexually assaulted while at Harvard Law School.

When I was finally found not guilty, a faculty member actually came up to me and congratulated me. “Congratulations! You get to graduate! Let me give you a bit of advice,” he said. “Move on!”