this is "nightline." >> tonight, is a university's honor code keeping rape survivors from speaking up? >> i was afraid it would be seen as my fault. >> scared their school would throw them out if they reported what happened. tonight brave women stepping out hoping to break a code of silence. plus, he's got all the makings of an internet phenomenon. adorable animals, check. rugged good lucooks, check. millions of followers, check. and finally, female fighters who say their isis's worst nightmare.

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good evening. thanks for joining us. sexual assault. it's a hot button issue plaguing campuses across the country. but now one school's honor code my be korchly

making survivors too afraid to come forward. what's worst, sexual predators may use that fear against them. two brave women share their stories trying to break the code of silence. >> reporter: the locals call it happy valley. for some survivors of sexual assault, it's anything but happy. marco krandl grew p in tradition. when a stranger got hold of a compromising photo of her, they used it to lure him into a trap. >> he contacted me and more or less blackmailed me into meeting up with him. >> a brutal assault came next. >> he had just hit me a lot. and while he was raping me he had bound me. >> reporter: she finally maced to escape, but his terrorizing didn't end there. >> after it was over he told me

or video to make me keep seeing him. >> reporter: when you ran out of there, did you think i'm going to run straight to the police? >> no. i was scared if the police found out, byu would find out. >> why were you afraid of that. >> i was afraid of the honor code and i would be kicked out of school. >> reporter: the code outlining modest dress, no caffeine or alcohol or porn or premarital sex. students can be expelled for violating the code. her rapest believe students live in fear of the honor code. >> people know that byu girls will be afraid to report something like that and that puts a target on our backs. >> reporter: that's why some students are going public.

can shame some into silence. >> honestly, i was hoping i wouldn't make it out of there. i felt so much shame. >> reporter: you literally wanted to die? >> yeah. >> reporter: within days her rapist sent her an e-mail, this time threatening her with new images he had taken during the attack. she said thafrs her breaking point. >> my dad was downstairs and he came into my room and asked me what happened. i told him, and he was then incredibly supportive. >> reporter: her daughter, david, is also a professor at byu. >> i'm glad that she had the strength to want to prosecute the case, to face her rapist. >> knowing that my dad believed me, that's what i needed to go to the police. >> reporter: going to the authorities wasn't easy for maddie barney either. >> we were in the police station, and i was just sobbing

i knew that byu was going to find out. >> reporter: she says the officer assured her the police wouldn't tell byi, so she worked up the courage to work up a police report accusing the man of rape. he has pled not. she thought she was going on a date with a young single guy. >> he lied about his age and marital status. he lied about everything. his name. >> reporter: it turns out he was a married 39-year-old youth soccer coach. she says in the weeks that followed her high grade point average began slipping. >> some days you have panic attacks and can't breathe, and some nights you have nightmares. >> reporter: despite the assurances of privacy, the college had a copy of her rape report. she soon found herself answering questions from the title 9 investigator. >> i don't recall breaking the honor code. she goes, well,

police report. i go excuse me? how did you get that. >> reporter: it was leaked by a sheriff's deputy. across the country, title 9 offices are supposed to be of service to rape survivors. >> we're not concerned about the minor alcohol violation. we're not concerned about the fact that you had a boy in your room. >> reporter: brett is a national consultant on title 9 issues. >> we as an institution feel ethically and legally obligated to do everything we can to help you in that situation. >> reporter: instead she says the byu title 9 officer seemed more interested in her potential honor code violations. did they try to help you stay in school? >> they told me they could not give me the services they would provide a rape victim because they could not prove that i'd been raped. >> reporter: the college said the primary focus oh isn't victim's safety and well being. a report of sexual assault would

tielts 9 office, not to the honor code office. the president said the university is studying the relationship between their title 9 office and their honor code office. >> we recognize there's some tension between those two, that there are some victims of sexual assault who already may feel like they don't want to come in and sometimes the fear of what's going to happen may keep them from coming in. we want to mip miez that as much as possible. >> reporter: she said she was told if she didn't cooperate with the honor code investigation she'd be barred from registering for future classes. >> title 9 spoke as if they were the honor code. she said if you don't let us investigate, we'll pass this information along with the honor code. >> reporter: she had since launched a petition demanding amnesty from honor code infractions when students report actual assault.

aren't taking a step back and saying it's much better to keep a victim in school than let her rapist walk around. >> victims may hesitate to come forward because the possibility that they could be subject to discipline creates a chilling effect on reporting. >> reporter: advocates say the way the honor code is enforced makes a painful ordeal worse. rape kits are really tough to go through. >> yeah. it was really traumatic having to be naked in front of someone again, having them take pictures of your injuries. >> reporter: and less than 40% of rape kits get sent to the crime lab in utah. >> i think that is a huge public safety concern. we're finding as more and more kits are tested that we're identifying serial rapists. many times these are the

community. >> reporter: in fact, mar go's rapist was accused to what a source close to the case character rises as a similar assault nature that accusation was dropped. >> i read the police report ten years later, and it was almost word for word what he did to me. >> reporter: reporting also gives victims resources for therapy. >> that's what worries me about people feeling like they can't report. you're not being able to talk about what happened. then you can't get help. and byu is preventing women from getting help for this. they're not looking at the bigger picture. >> reporter: one rapist was convicted. his sentence, five years to life in prison. after dropping out when she went to reenroll in byu, she says they only

support after the proof that he was found guilty. >> once they got proof he was convicted. until that time they weren't friendly or nice or didn't offer me my help. >> reporter: the school then helped her to reenroll in classes and change her failing grades towithdrawals. no her rapist behind bars is appealing. margo and her father are hoping there will be a amnesty clause for sexual assault cases. >> we're talking about human beings. what we need is the person who has been assaulted to be lovingly cared for. >> blame is not helpful h. >> no, it isn't. >> if i stayed silent, i think that would have carried that around for the rest of my life. now i've been able to speak out about it and it's helped me

maddie and margo for sharing their stories. up next, we change gears. almost 300,000 instagram users follow this veterinarian's every move. we'll show you why. ellen, and i quit smoking with chantix. i always came back to smoking. i was absolutely frustrated, absolutely. i did not think chantix would work as well as it did. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you have these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have heart or blood vessel problems, or develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.

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z2025z there's a reason why people magazine dubbed him the sexiest beast charmer alive and thousands of instagram followers seem to agree. we are taken into his world for our social stars series. >> reporter:

that mask, muscles behind the scrubs. he's saving a pbunny rabbit's life. i'm not going to show you his face just yet. first, what do colleagues from v to say about him, instagram man j veerl veteran. >> one person shouldn't be that good looking. it's not fair to the rest of us. >> reporter: do you find yourself staring at him in. >> you get used to it, but at first, a little bit. >> my pet is happy. i'm happy. when i see him, he's easy on the eyes. how many hot guys do you see on the street every day and then having him be your vet -- >> has an owner ever said to you you're just a chip and dale pretending to be a vet? >> it has. they're like this guy, he's just he looks like he's a model or something. i want a real doctor. >> reporter: he doesn't look like a real vet. >> he doesn't. >> reporter: he looks like he plays one on

>> i know. >> is it serious? >> reporter: here he is in all of his glory. an exotic pet specialist people magazine sexiest beast charmer alive closing in on 300,000 instagram followers. >> i refresh my phone and there's a few thousand every couple minutes. it was crazy. >> reporter: posts like this and this, exotic. comments like this, if he's a vet, i'm an animal. this guy is literally perfection. >> reporter: marriage proposals? >> yeah. a few of those. >> reporter: but the 3 1-year-old dream boat is, i'm afraid, engaged to be married and not to someone who stoalked him an instagram. why has his social media star ascended so? if you were an ugly veten,

>> i don't know. we see such cool stuff. maybe not. >> reporter: he started working here at the veteran hospital in california three years ago. >> everybody i meet and know wants to know if i work at that vet clinic with that hot doctor. >> i started in about a year or so into practice, maybe six months, showing neat animals. we see so many cool things here. >> reporter: then people said i don't care about the snake. i want to look at the doctor. what does your day look like? you look like you go to the gym. >> thank you. getting to the gym is something i like to do daily. get training in. >> reporter: he does every day. two hours a day if he's not too busy saving animal's lives. he paid his way through vet school as a fitness trainer on the side. he's a nice guy. >> she is. but it's kind of irritating when a good looking person

>> reporter: sometimes all it takes to succeed on social media is a pretty face and a rock hard body like this man. >> do you have a girlfriend? >> i don't. >> reporter: but with dr. evan, there's more. >> he posted a video of a baby, and i'm like, okay, guy, animals and babies? i mean, every girl is just drooling. >> reporter: part of the appeal as with my social media star is genuine passion. it's not an act? >> no. i don't think you go through this much school and work. it's a lot of work. >> reporter: you can't fake that you're enjoying extracting a stinky egg. >> this is called the vent. there must be something wrong with him. bad temper, late, bad breath? >> slow to surgery.

>> reporter: apparently you're not that great at time keeping? >> is that what they said? >> reporter: i'm trying to find the achilles heal. >> when he first started working here before he went into an exam room, he'd stand in front of the door, do this, straighten his scrubs, put on his smile and then walk in. it was very entertaining. don't tell him i told you that. >> reporter: are any of the annals grateful? i had a bird with a fish hook stuck in his break. it's all about the association with pets. >> twinkie is about to go under the knife. good luck, twinkie. dr. evan will take good care of you. you don't care that he's pretty good looking but he is. >> oh, she does. look at that face. she's happy. >> reporter: my wife says she needs to take our dog in for

check up. hang on. we don't even have a dog. up next, we're on the front lines with the women who claim to be isis's worst nightmare. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ life is a sport. we are the utility. the new ford escape. be unstoppable. introduces new, easy-to-swallow tablets. so now, there are more ways, for more people... to experience...

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finally tonight we're on the ground in iraq with an extraordinary team of female fighters who have made it their mission to battle isis. martha raddits is right there. >> reporter: these are some of the fiercest most dedicated warriors fighting in iraq. they are the female zaravani. this latest closz of some 30 women is preparing to join close to 30 others who have taken up arms against the terrorist group

marksmanship. with their italian instructors who wear the unit's signature black presumes. >> reporter: the range in ages 18 to 40. most doing security but some are on the front lines. they were part of the force to free a town from control. >> we stayed for four days. there were a lot of isis, but we fight. we come back safe to our homes. were these women, the fight is deeply personal. >> has any one of your women lost friends or family to isis? >> reporter: we lost a lot of friends. >> reporter: but as the fighters practice their first aid to defend their homeland. their captain tells me that women have a power when it comes to fighting isis. it would be humiliating for an isis fighter

hands. >> reporter: so isis is more scared of the females than the men? that's a yes. for "nightline," we're in northern iraq. thanks for watching abc news. tune in to good morning america tomorrow, and we're online at abcnoouz.com. good night, america. e.com. good night, america. w.com. good night, america. s.com. good night, america. you know how my mom is coming for thanksgiving? yeah. last night, i sort of... ...invited my father, too. what are you doin'? they're divorced! you can't invite them to the same place anymore. they legally agreed to not like each other. it was an accident. he told me he was gonna be in madagascar for thanksgiving,

so just to be nice, you know, i said, "oh, it's too bad you can't come, too. we're gonna miss you." and then last night, he called and said he put the whole trip off and he's coming. oh, why are you nice?! i know, but your mom said that my mom can stay at your house, and the kids'll stay in one room my dad'll take our room-- whoa! you gave your dad my bed?! the man sleeps naked and spoons the pillow. i'll get the pillow outta there. get the man outta there!