Student Turns McCarthy Dorm Into a BDSM Dungeon Using Command Strips

By Lili Adkins

LOS ANGELES, CA –– While conducting a mandatory Health and Safety Inspection in McCarthy Residential College, USC Housing employees discovered that one resourceful student had transformed her half of the room into a DIY BDSM dungeon –– using only Command Strips as adhesive. 

Tracy McDonald, the 51-year-old employee who first discovered the lair, reported feeling both disturbed and intrigued upon finding it: “Look, I’ve been doing these inspections for years. I’ve never seen anything like it. Sure, every once in a while, somebody accidentally leaves out a couple dildos or a pair of fluffy handcuffs on inspection day, but this wasn’t your typical vanilla freshman setup.” McDonald added, “There were contraptions hanging from the ceiling, jutting off the bunk bed, attached to the wall. The fact she has no noise complaints on file is frankly astounding. Of course, maybe the assortment of leather muzzles hanging on the wall can account for that.”

The student in question is Samantha Silver, a first-year computer science major from Bismarck, North Dakota. When asked about the events preceding the creation of her dungeon, Silver explained, “Basically, my crazy aunt in Malibu went through a Fifty Shades of Grey phase after her divorce. When I moved to LA, she just gave me all her old equipment, a BDSM handbook, and like twenty bottles of wine as a dorm-warming gift. And like, I’m all about sustainability and recycling, so I wasn’t about to waste it.” 

Silver soon realized that she could not attach the equipment to the wall with a hammer and nails due to a stipulation in her Housing Contract. Instead, she had to innovate to construct her arrangement: “I went to Target and got a bunch of Command Strips and set everything up. The hooks are super helpful for displaying my whips, chains, and paddles, and the standard strips work pretty well for attaching hand restraints and stuff. When Command promises ‘damage-free hanging,’ they mean it. One time, I had a two-hundred pound guy suspended upside down supported by a single strip –– and that paint didn’t budge.” 

As she has broken no official USC Housing rules nor accrued any repair fees, Silver’s dungeon will be able to remain intact until Move-Out Day. She noted, “I just hope that next semester in Illium I can get a single. Having a roommate studying for her economics midterm in the corner could honestly get pretty awkward… until she joined in.”