“One in four women in college today have been victims of rape.” Look at that statistic, and then look around you. Many believe that number is even greater, due to unreported cases.
Take Back the Night is a march held on college campuses (Towson’s TBTN will on April 28). Survivors and supporters alike come together to speak out about sexual and domestic violence. Along with Walk a Mile in Her Shoes (which was held on campus on April 20), an event that targets men and challenges them help end sexual violence, Take Back the Night focuses on an issue that, for many college students hits home.
This issue is illustrated clearly by Katie Couric’s recently conducted interview on behalf of CBS News regarding the problem of sexual assault on college campuses, specifically the assault on Beckett Brennan at the University of the Pacific. Brennan, a member of the women’s basketball team, accepted a ride after a party from two men who were on the men’s basketball team. They led her upstairs in a building where she believed there would be another party, and three men proceeded to rape her multiple times.
One of her friends recorded Brennan’s story without her knowledge when she called them to report what had happened, prompting her assistant coach to call her once she had flown home. University Police questioned the alleged assailants four days after the alleged assault.
Later, she was urged by officials at the University to report the assault to the local police, where she was persuaded by a detective’s stories of trials-gone-wrong to not file criminal charges and instead go before the school’s judicial review board; the board, consisting of three students, a teacher, and an administrator, was an option for the Brennans that would conceal their daughter’s identity.
Brennan says many of the board’s questions focused on her behavior, such as drinking, rather than the alleged assault. The judicial review board ruled all three players guilty – one suspended for two semesters, and one suspended for a single semester; the third student was expelled, only to receive a full scholarship to the University of Idaho within three months [CBS].
This story should make you sick. It has notably been said that “we live in a society that teaches us ‘don’t get raped’ as opposed to ‘don’t rape.’” There is no reason why someone who is found guilty of rape should get off with only this so-called punishment. While the messages we send to men should consist of “walk a mile in her shoes” and “don’t rape”, this incident tells them they may even be able to get a full scholarship out of it.
Rape culture is everywhere. The war on women is spiraling out of control, practically unnoticed. Vice President Joe Biden traveled to the University of New Hampshire to address this very problem and explain the school’s guidelines.
Discussing a specific case, Biden explained how a young woman (whom he referred to as Jenny) didn’t have her allegation taken seriously because she had been drinking the night of the alleged assault; other questions by the student judicial panel included how she was dancing and what she was wearing. Biden said, “The student judicial panel said that they didn’t find Jenny credible because she had been drinking. They decided her rapist was a nice kid and didn’t deserve the punishment under the circumstances” [NPR].
If the Vice President of the United States has time to speak out about rape, so do you. There are numerous ways to get involved on any campus, one of which is to join us on April 28 and march in solidarity.
Recently, there was a rape involving a student athlete at the University of the Pacific which showed us how our system fails those that are sexually assaulted. The student in this case was raped by members of the basketball team. At the time she was scared to report it but her friends reported the assault to the police; thereby starting an inquiry. Instead of going through the judicial system the University “dealt” with the incident via a judicial board. The school suspended 2 of the rapists for periods ranging from a semester to a total academic year. The third rapist was sentenced to expulsion. The young lady had originally decided to leave school after the incident but after some time believed it was best to return in order for her to find some normalcy.
Unfortunately following her return she was shunned by her teammates because of new regulations put in place following her rape. This made it increasingly difficult for her to find any sense of a normal life as she knew it before she was raped.
Instead of having a student conduct hearing the police should have addressed situation. The courts in the area should have prosecuted the three young men so that the victim of rape wouldn’t have faced the additional humiliation and suffering that came with her name being made public because of the failures of the University. The University should have provided her with additional counseling to help her heal from the devastating crime committed against her instead of blaming her partly for the incident. Counseling and punishment through the proper channels is vital but there also needs to be harsher punishment for those convicted of the crime of rape and other sexual offenses. With harsher mandatory punishment accompanied by additional public campaigns communicating the mandatory limits along with the ability to remain anonymous for the victims to young men and women, there can be a dent made in the amount of attacks and an increase in the reporting of such crimes. With those actions there must also be a renewed effort to provide anonymous counseling for those affected by sexual assault.
In closing, if you have been the victim of a sexual assault, report the crime. It was not your fault and those that have committed the crime against you may do it again to another.
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