A Silent Threat on College Campuses
With Labor Day upon us, the summer is coming to a close and students are heading back to
school. Many parents are sending their teenagers off to college to revel in a tremendous
growth and learning experience…but there is a danger that many parents and students
don’t recognize, it’s the overwhelming number of sexual assaults on campus. A study (link
to: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e03021472.pdf)
from the Department of Justice estimated that 1 in 4 college women will be victims of rape
or attempted rape before they graduate within a four-year college period, and that women
between the ages of 16 to 24 will experience rape at a rate that's four times higher than the
assault rate of all women. September is National Campus Safety Awareness Month and
higher learning institutions have a duty to protect their students and cultivate a safe
environment thanks to Title IX, which guarantees equal access to education. Sadly,
countless students on college campuses experience sexual assault and while these crimes
are extremely prevalent, it is also extremely underreported and many students suffer in
silence. This lack of justice is due in part to “victim-blaming” language, lack of support, and
the re-victimization of survivors.
When sexual assault survivors attempt to report the crime – or even simply talk about their
trauma to friends and family – they are often met with language that blames them for what
happened. There is an overwhelming amount of alcohol-facilitated sexual assault and most
of the time the survivor knows the perpetrator. Because of this, many survivors blame
themselves for what happened, or don't realize that what happened to them was a crime.
These feelings of shame and blame are further intensified when well-meaning parents and
friends attempt to brush it under the rug or use language that somehow puts the
responsibility on the survivor. We need to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions
and give support to survivors to encourage a faster healing process.
This lack of support is not simply from family and friends - it is also
institutionalized. I can speak from personal experience how difficult it is to
report a sexual assault to authorities and to be accused of lying about it. Over
twenty years ago, Congress passed a disclosure law, now known as the Jeanne
Clery Act, that force schools to disclose all crime that happens on campus - thus
students and their parents would be informed. The hope was that it would
pressure the college presidents to work on crime prevention. The problem is
not only is college sexual assault extremely under-reported, many students have
a lack of support from the campus police and there have been many news
stories of egregious campus cover-ups. The Universities don’t want bad press,
so the numbers of “reported” sexual assaults on college campuses are often
under 10 for any given year, though the US Dept of Justice research shows that
an average of 25% of college women will be victimized. The Center for Public
Integrity
(LINK:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/accountability/education/sexual-assaultcampus) conducted a year-long study and illustrated that "students found
'responsible' for alleged sexual assaults on campuses often face little or no
punishment," and victims who do report these crimes run into "barriers".
Universities need to protect survivors – yet often they are re-victimized by being forced to
see their perpetrator on campus day in and day out. This can have a significant adverse
effect on their ability to thrive in their educational studies. When Annie Clark, a former UNC
student went to report, she was re-traumatized in the process. The school official said,
“Rape is like football, if you look back on the game, and you're the quarterback,
Annie... is there anything you would have done differently?"
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-e-clark/rape-is-like-a-footballg_b_2769576.html
A former student of Southern Connecticut State University Wendy Wyler says she was
sexually harassed and touched inappropriately by a music professor, yet he is still on staff.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/SCSU-student-claims-sexual-harrasment-by-prof2682505.php
Universities need to hold perpetrators accountable and stop the re-traumatization of
survivors as well as cultivate a healthy environment that does tolerate sexual violence or
sexual bullying. These issues can be mitigated with a clear, comprehensive, and easy to find
sexual assault policy and a commitment to professional development on these issues and
prevention education. We need to educate parents that even if the University you are
sending your daughter to has an unusually high number of reported sexual assaults, it
doesn’t necessarily mean that the school is comparatively un-safe, in fact it can illustrate the
exact opposite. Schools that encourage a safe reporting environment for students to seek
justice can create the illusion of an “un-safe” school – but can simply mean that schools are
encouraging students to seek and receive justice. It is crucial for campus officials to commit
to creating safe environments where students can learn and thrive.
Angela Rose is founder of PAVE: Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, a nonprofit that works to prevent sexual violence. PAVE is convening a National Campus Sexual
Assault Summit in DC on to focus on prevention, policy and intervention. Rose is the author of
“Hope, Healing & Happiness: Going Inward to Transform Your
Life.” https://www.createspace.com/4224657
She is on Twitter @AngelaRosePAVE