A Montreal college student is speaking out after police dropped her sexual assault case based on security camera footage, despite the fact that she had reported being assaulted in a men's washroom.

The 19-year-old woman, who is not being identified for privacy reasons, says that a classmate she had just met at John Abbott College in June kept putting his hand on her thigh one day during class.

After class, she says he pushed her against a wall and kissed her, put his hand down her pants, and then took her by the wrist and dragged her into an elevator, where he put his hand on her neck.

“He kissed me and every time I said ‘no’ he slapped me across the face,” she said.

The woman said she was carried into a men’s washroom of the sixth floor of the school building, where the man pulled her hair and forced her to perform oral sex.

She says the two left the washroom at the same time. At one point, she says she may have laughed.

Around the time of the alleged assault, the woman text messaged her mother and asked her to pick her up from school.

“I knew there was something not right, I could see it in her face,” the mother said. “As she approached the car, she started to cry,” she added.

“She pulled down her sweater and she showed me the marks on her neck,” the mother went on.

"I was devastated."

The mother and daughter told a college official immediately, and campus security reported the assault to police.

The college suspended the man pending a police investigation, but less than two weeks after the incident, police informed the college they would not press charges.

'Total victim blaming'

The woman says a police detective who reviewed security camera footage from day in question told her she looked like she had “enjoyed it.” She also says an officer called her “delusional.”

“In the elevator, I told him I didn’t want anything to happen,” she said. “But I didn’t do anything to fight him off because, honestly, I was terrified of what he was going to do.”

“I guess maybe because of that, they assumed I wanted it,” she added

She said she has not seen the security camera footage and points out much of the alleged assault took place in a washroom where there wouldn’t be a security camera.

Montreal police media relations officer Jean-Pierre Brabant confirmed that the case has been closed.

“With the footage that we had, there was reason to believe that a certain part of the event didn't happen,” Brabant said.

The woman said she sees that decision as “total victim blaming.”

“I know that there’s a lot of women who don’t come forward,” she said. “With it actually happening to me, now I know and I understand why people don’t come forward.”

The girl’s mother said she believes the case should be re-opened. “I’m frustrated because you cannot tell how a person’s feeling inside by their reaction,” she said.

The mother said her daughter is afraid to go back to school later this month.

John Abbott issued a statement saying that it is “now focusing on the re-integration of both students.”

Sexual assault survivor Elizabeth Hanley has launched a petition asking the school to do its own investigation and apologize to the woman.

“I am a survivor myself of a similar situation,” Hanley said. “I just don't want this victim to feel like she's alone in this.”

Recent ruling in Alberta

An Alberta judge recently overturned a lower court justice’s ruling where he had dismissed a sexual assault complaint at a high school after stating the alleged victim could be seen smiling “genuinely” for at least five seconds, had not avoided taking the same path as the boy after the assault and did not call for help from a janitor.

In that case, Madam Justice Topolniski listed several reasons why the lower court judge had misinterpreted the law around consent.

“Consent means “Yes,” Topolniski wrote. “The word “No” does not mean “Yes.” The word “No” coupled with fending off an attacker with a water bottle does not mean “Yes.” There is nothing ambiguous about it.”

Topolniski added that “the complainant’s state of mind after the incident is irrelevant to the question of consent.”

“Indeed, the trial judge’s consideration of the complainant’s post-incident conduct is indicative of sexual stereotype about how victims of sexual assault will behave,” she went on.

With a report from CTV Montreal’s Cindy Sherwin