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Pride's Tori Sullivan discusses alleged sexual assault on Boston College campus

Sullivan opens up about an alleged incident from her playing days at Boston College

2016 Women’s Beanpot Tournament - Semifinals Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

This past weekend, CTV’s W5 aired a scathing news story in which the Boston Pride’s Tori Sullivan sat down with TSN’s Rick Westhead and discussed an alleged sexual assault that happened in 2015 during her tenure with the Boston College women’s hockey team. As a result of this incident, Sullivan would later transfer to Northeastern University.

People should watch the entire story in Sullivan's own words, which you can see below.

Readers should be given a strong trigger warning, as this story discusses sexual assault, suicidal ideations, and alcohol abuse.

Sullivan decided she was ready to come forward when Westhead helped Kyle Beach discuss the abuse that he suffered during his tenure with the Chicago Blackhawks.

(Editor’s note: The content discussed below comes directly from the CTV W5 embedded above and linked here. We encourage you to watch the interview to get the full understanding of the story.)

Per Sullivan, the incident happened in 2015 while she was partying with teammates at a football team party. That night, she alleges that an unnamed football player sexually assaulted her by ignoring boundaries set by Sullivan.

The news piece shares a text chain between Sullivan and the unnamed player in which the man apologizes and is fearful of getting into trouble. At the end, he indicates that the texts should be deleted.

Sullivan states that she received no support on the Chestnut Hill campus from the start when she told a teammate who responded that Sullivan “shouldn’t have been so drunk.” (Editorial note: A person cannot consent while incapacitated due to drugs or alcohol.)

Over the next year, Sullivan says battled alcohol use issues and had an attempt at suicide that were, thankfully, unsuccessful. She was able to receive support from some of her friends and her parents in that situation. In the later part of 2016, Sullivan took a leave of absence from the hockey team. She alleges that the coaching staff directed her teammates to remove her from their group chat and block communications with her.

After her return to campus in 2017, she asked to be reinstated but was told she was no longer allowed to play for the team; upon asking for a reason she was told “you are a disruption to the team.”

Boston College was asked for comment on the allegations. They said they treat all allegations with the utmost seriousness, and later in the statement called the allegations “specious.”

Sullivan has asked for this to be reinvestigated but the school has said they cannot as the alleged perpetrator is no longer a student.