A conversation with the founder of RIOT: Resilience, conflict, and the fight against injustice

When I first met the founder and director of RIOT, who will remain nameless upon their discretion, I was struck by their strength of character and innate determination to prevent other university students from enduring the same hardship they went through. 
 
Given all of the attention that RIOT, an on-campus society campaigning to support victims of sexual abuse, had received as a result of its public activism, I was surprised to discover nobody had actually sat down with its founder and allowed them to tell their story, and that of RIOT, on their own terms.  
 
This is that conversation. A telling of the story of RIOT’s inception, its founder’s relationship with activism, and the resilience required to fight against injustice while staying sane.  
 
After being a victim of sexual abuse themselves, RIOT’s founder was clear as to the reasoning behind their founding of the society: “My journey with RIOT is synonymous with how I felt, 2nd year was when I was my angriest.” 
 
Despite going to the University’s Report and Support services with text messages and witness statements proving their abusers’ crimes, they were told that the cases would not be taken forward. 

RIOT was born from its founder’s sense of impotence at the time, and their refusal to “keep this shit quiet.”

“I had everything bar CCTV and audio messages,” they told me, but the response from the University was, in their words: “We are not going to take it any further but [the perpetrators] feel really guilty and they know what they have done.” 
 
At the time, RIOT’s director and founder was surprisingly measured with their response to being denied the support they deserved. In the days after Report and Support’s decision, they said they would have “let it go as long as they [the perpetrators] acknowledged that what they did to [them] was wrong.” 
 
When it came to requesting that the University demand a formal apology on behalf of RIOT’s founder, the University’s response was that issuing a formal apology would require an official acknowledgement that crimes had taken place. Such an admission would have forced Warwick to take the case forward against their original decision. 
 
Reeling in the face of the University’s response, RIOT was born from its founder’s sense of impotence at the time, and their refusal to “keep this shit quiet.” RIOT’s director told me that after opening the society Instagram account in April 2024, they and their team began reaching out to local charities and survivor groups such as Everyone’s Invited and Survivor’s Sanctuary in Coventry. 

“It went from something really, really personal to something way too big for me in the span of months. What ended up happening was the fault of me not knowing how to handle a campaign and not having any experience with community organising.”

– Founder of RIOT

RIOT’s director was adamant that the original objective of the society was to share the stories of those who had been sexually abused and to hold the perpetrators accountable by allowing survivors to “vocalise, criticise, and protest against Warwick University’s handling of sexual violence.” 
 
Despite their initial excitement for the project, the founder of RIOT was honest to admit to me that they were not prepared for the intensity of the struggle for justice. They told me candidly: “It went from something really, really personal to something way too big for me in the span of months. What ended up happening was the fault of me not knowing how to handle a campaign and not having any experience with community organising.” 
 
As time went on, the society’s initial goals of sharing the stories of victims of abuse morphed into something altogether unintended: adjudicating what cases to promote and which ones to leave out of the campaign. The society’s founder felt they had become the arbiter of what cases deserved to be supported and which ones didn’t, a role they admitted they were not qualified to undertake and never intended to do so.  
 
Their newfound visibility on campus also meant they became a target for bad-faith actors, who accused them of being a rape-apologist after not taking forward a particular case with flimsy evidence. “I know I’m not a malicious person, I know I try to be good to people,” they told me regarding the attacks they faced from their peers and close friends. As they mentioned repeatedly throughout our conversation, the founder’s goal was always to expose the fact that “institutionally, Warwick had neglected [their] story, along with countless others.” At the same time, RIOT’s founder pointed out the general apathy they faced when trying to enact change. 
 
Despite the difficult relationship its founder had with the society, they were keen to promote all of the work their team put towards holding perpetrators of sexual abuse accountable on campus. Conducting a meeting with the CEO of the charity Everyone’s Invited, amplifying the voices of those mistreated by the University, and holding the society’s first protest on campus, these are all things the founder of RIOT emphasises they are proud of. 
 
It was at the end of their third year that leading the fight against sexual abuse on campus became too much. In their characteristic honesty, RIOT’s director admitted that after the head of Report and Support services accepted RIOT’s manifesto points, there was a part of them that “never wanted to touch this again.” 
 
Now that RIOT has wound down most of its work since the end of the last academic year, I was interested to hear whether its founder would pick RIOT back up as they continue on their Integrated Masters at the University. “There are parts of me that are trying to find the strength to do it again because it is something I really care about, I just think I need to reevaluate my own relationship with it. It would have been smarter to make the leadership structures more communal and democratic to share the emotional burden.” 

RIOT’s director conceded that their own naivety was part of the reason the society had affected them in the way that it did. In their meeting with Everyone’s Invited, the charity’s CEO warned that RIOT’s work was “not going to be fun,” encouraging the director to be prepared for it. “I understand her point a lot more now,” RIOT’s founder responded. “Back then, there was a part of me that wanted to burn it all down, I didn’t care what would happen.” 
 
Having ended their time as Director of RIOT, they shared with me their honest advice for anyone wanting to take on a similar fight on whatever issue: “Protect yourself or have people that are willing to protect you. You cannot help everyone; you cannot save everyone.” On this point, they emphasised that if you insist on bearing the burden of your work against more powerful institutions, it is only a matter of time before you will not be able to cope. 
 
Reflecting on their own inability to take this advice when it counted, they told me: “If I could give it all back in exchange for a normal university experience, I would take that choice if I am being honest, which is a shame.” 
 

“My perspective has shifted to trying to protect the women here more so than attacking the institution directly. The institution is not going to change, at least in the time that I am here. I will do what I can, but I am more focused on creating those spaces where such sexual abuse doesn’t happen.”

– Founder of RIOT

Even when I pressed them on the great work that RIOT has done for victims of sexual abuse, they told me: “If it means nobody has to go through what I went through, if it means helping just one person, that would be great, but I look at it very differently now.” 
 
This is not to say that RIOT’s director renounces their role in activism. In their own words: “My perspective has shifted to trying to protect the women here more so than attacking the institution directly. The institution is not going to change, at least in the time that I am here. I will do what I can, but I am more focused on creating those spaces where such sexual abuse doesn’t happen.” 
 
As our conversation came to a close, I asked them about the future of the University’s institutions and what gives them hope for positive change. ‘Honestly, I don’t know’, was their immediate answer. ‘It would have to be another rape chat scandal or something like that. It would have to take something really horrific or them losing their money basically.’  
 
Despite their fatalistic answer, the founder was quick to emphasise that even if things don’t change at the institutional level, there are safe spaces where victims of sexual abuse can seek refuge. “Survivor Sanctuary Coventry offers monthly peer support sessions on campus, and (Q)ulture (@qulturewarwick on Instagram) is another society that I run, which I have put a lot of effort into building an inclusive culture around and within.” 
 
While RIOT’s founder and director was clear in saying that their time at Warwick has been “nothing short of traumatising,” I could not help but admire their resilience at times when others would have crumbled. Throughout the interview, their upbeat demeanour never wavered despite the gravity of the subject, and the honesty with which they spoke about their own shortcomings reminded me why it was they who had taken the first steps toward founding RIOT. 
Perhaps that is the irony of the activist: the very passion that drives them to fight for a cause can become the reason they are forced to step away from it. I say it is better to have fought for what you believe in than never to have fought at all. 
 
 
In response to the above article, the University of Warwick’s spokesperson issued the following statements: 
 
“Warwick is committed to tackling all types of unacceptable behaviour on campus, including sexual misconduct. We take a trauma-informed and survivor-led response to all issues raised. 
 
“Whilst we do not comment on individual cases, we investigate all allegations of sexual misconduct and aim to tackle unacceptable behaviour through disciplinary action where cases are proven. We also actively seek to prevent unacceptable behaviour through training, education, and increased support for all our community. 
 
“All students complete mandatory training via the ‘Student Conduct: What you need to know’ Moodle. We also deliver annual education courses directly to students’ phones, including consent training in October 2024 that had an engagement rate of 84%. Across all these training and support methods, information was included on the Report + Support service and our Student Wellbeing service. 
“The University has engaged with RIOT directly, listening to their concerns and their experiences. We offered support in how to deal with student disclosures, including on sexual misconduct, and offered support on liaising with the Police on such matters. 
 
“We recognise that we must always seek to improve and strengthen our support offer, which is why we are one of five English universities to pilot the ‘EmilyTest Gender Based Violence Charter’. We remain fully committed to working with the Students’ Union, our students, staff, and visitors to continue to tackle misconduct, raise awareness of the support available, and build confidence in the reporting of incidents.”