ST. CLOUD — On Thursday, the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA) denounced the MeTooKit, an as-yet-unreleased product from a company that has approached colleges and universities as venues to launch their “at-home forensic evidence collection kits,” also known as rape kits.
The MeTooKit company, based in New York, has started a wait-list for the kits on its website and developed a pilot program for colleges and universities, offering to donate kits to be shipped to schools.
MNCASA issued a statement Thursday saying the organization “is greatly concerned that (the at-home kits) are being marketed to the public, particularly on college campuses,” as “at-home rape kits are not a viable alternative to a forensic medical exam. …. We do not advise that any college or university encourage students to use this product or make it available for use.”
Lee LaDue, assistant director of St. Cloud State University’s Women’s Center and coordinator of its Gender Violence Prevention Program, characterized MeTooKit as “somebody trying to make money off of people’s victimization.”
According to LaDue, there is precious little time to have forensic evidence from a sexual assault collected and recorded in a manner that would stand up to a legal challenge — because “once that 72 to 150 hours is up, they can’t go back — that evidence, much of it, will be gone,” she said.
