Look at the people around you. What do you know about them? Only as much as they tell you about themselves, right? But even then, that barely gives you a glimpse into their life. Studies show one out of every five females is sexually assaulted on her college campus. Look around again. This statistic means you now know that sexual assault could likely become part of the story for 30 of the 182 females that roam these halls everyday. This is the alarming truth that has taken America by storm. While Americans may have thought that what people post on their Facebook wall, the faces they put on to mask the truth, and the clothes they wear is enough to know a person, it turns out beneath all those faces you see in the hallway, underneath their clothes, there are stories you don’t know. This is not only true of Hackley’s campus, but of high school campuses, and especially college campuses, all over the world. Those untold stories have recently come into the limelight, and many are pulled together by the same threads: rape and sexual assault.
We often hear about the unfortunate tragedy that a day at school may end when a student, faculty member, or complete stranger walks through the door armed with a gun. Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and Columbine are amongst the most prominent of recent recollection. Sexual assault occurs with much more frequency, yet it is less prominent in the news. The issue has remained dormant for decades, but after President Obama’s State of the Union, it has erupted and many discussions attempting to break down the walls have initiated. With seniors heading off to college next year, and many juniors likely to start visiting colleges over spring break, it’s time for Hackley to have a discussion and address the issue that may well be popping up on those college tours.
Junior Rachelle Emanuel who will be embarking on college visits this spring break was shocked by the magnitude of this number. “I didn’t know it was that common of an issue. I really wasn’t expecting it to be that high, but now that I think about it, what’s even more alarming is that it’s probably higher, but some girls are too afraid to address it,” she said. Rachelle’s theory is accurate; only 12% of female sexual assault victims report the incident. A certain fear usually holds the other 88% back; a fear that usually stems from shame, an alcohol/drug factor, or getting friends in trouble.
A point that is commonly risen in the discussion is rape culture. Rape culture argues that victims are slut shamed and often blamed for their sexual assault and that perpetrators use the way in which the victim presents his or herself as a way to excuse the assault, thus leading the victim to believe him or herself responsible. Essentially, the victim’s attire, attitude, or previous sexual behavior was a factor of enticement or provocation for the perpetrator; characterizations that may be regarded as being the equivalent of a “slut” or “whore.” This theory gets more complicated in that not only are “easy targets” sought after, but so are those “playing hard to get.” In line with Robin Thicke’s controversial song Blurred Lines, a Dartmouth student was recently confronted by school officials for posting this description of a female student “with the reputation of a recluse,” as he encouraged other students to rape her and drew out a vivid game plan for them.
This plan involved the use of alcohol, which the student said to “increase…each time.” Unlike assaults at Virginia Tech, where the intention was to murder with an assault weapon, sexual assailants typically make alcohol their weapon of choice. Psychologist David Lisak says, “first-year students, freshman women, are particularly at risk for sexual assault. The predators on campus know that women who are new to campus, they are younger, they’re less experienced. They probably have less experience with alcohol, they want to be accepted. They will probably take more risks because they want to be accepted. So for all these reasons, the predators will look particularly for those women.” During this six week period called “the red zone,” not only are victims potentially unaware of their surroundings, but they are likely to be unaware of alcohol policies. The risk of being expelled and shamed for underage drinking or using illicit drugs becomes of more concern than obtaining the expulsion of a classmate.
The student’s plan further included “befriend[ing] her” as a step in the goal of raping the female student. This is yet another fear causing factor as 92% of rapes are committed by people the victim knows. The implications that accusing an ex-boyfriend (51% of the predator source), acquaintance, or professor (14%) has for the student’s social life are often enough to cause hesitation or silence. This leads to multiple rapes; sometimes by a different person, or by a repeat offender, who account for 92% of all rapists, an average of six rapes each.
The likelihood of encountering a repeat offender on campus is heightened by the fact that even in cases where assaults are reported, expulsion is rarely an outcome and disciplinary action is limited. Many schools handle the assaults as violations to school codes. Such cases led Angie Epifano, who was raped at Amherst to file federal complaints along with students of other top tier schools like Vanderbilt University, accusing the administrations of their colleges of not taking proper action and failing to offer adequate training in sexual respect. In lieu of suspending or expelling (expulsion of an assailant hasn’t occurred for 20 years) Epifano’s assailant, Amherst sent her to a psych ward after she wrote an op-ed slamming the school’s policies and for admitting to depression.
Though students have noted improvements, there are still holes, evident in the attitude of many students who have been noted as saying “stop protesting, you’re ruining my senior year,” or “’Who’s this… Angie Epifano who’s making my degree worthless.” New students are further more unaware of the issue’s severity: “Three Amherst first-year men, who had just gone through the college’s entire orientation, did not know that men could be raped or even that rape happens at Amherst,” Epifano said. Though there are rare occurrences of male rape on college campuses, over a quarter of the 1.6 million men who will be raped in their lives, experience it by the age of ten.
Senior Jed Dioguardi, like most male students at Hackley, has voiced that he does not personally feel the eminent threat of rape, but understands “that people may feel uneasy due to its constant presence in movies and TV shows…which try to explain “why it happens,” while not offering a clear “what to do.” Despite the unclearness of the situation, Jed feels obligated to “immediately get help from an adult and comfort the individual who has been through the horrific experience” despite not knowing exactly what he would do if he were the victim. Before this can be successful, Jed believes “conversations need to be brought up with faculty to help them understand what they should do if a student comes to them in need of assistance. Students should also understand that if they see something, then should say something, and stand up. I feel that some students don’t necessarily know how to deal with these situations, so instead of trying and possibly stepping out of their comfort zone, they choose the ignore it and do nothing.”
Though applauding the efforts and improvements colleges have made in recent years, Dr. Lisak believes, “these are clearly not individuals who are simply in need of a little extra education about proper communication with the opposite sex. These are predators.” Lisak places blames on the attitudes of the colleges, both the administration and student body, which often silence the victim and lead the offender to disregard the incident as rape.
Sophomore Morgan Connor echoed this sentiment and urged victims to report the incidents. “Rape is rape and both students and colleges need to publicly assert when it occurs. They can’t hide it because in doing so they’re giving preference to the rapist, instead of the victim,” she said. As Mr. Lisak she believes stricter policies need to be in place and that “colleges should offer every victim therapy sessions, because you’re going to feel worthless and fall into the trap of believing that you should’ve worn modest clothes to not sexually attract guys. All this not only jeopardizes college experience and your education.”
President Obama called for these changes in his State of the Union, and has created a task force called White House Council on Women and Girls, whose responsibility it will be to find new ways to pressure colleges to prevent and police sexual assaults on their campuses, and avoided cases like Amherst and Dartmouth’s. A priority is to encourage more men to intervene when they see an attack or to report assaults. “I want every young man in America to feel some strong peer pressure in terms of how they are supposed to behave and treat women,” Mr. Obama said. Such sentiments are what led schools, including Amherst, to withdraw policies in which the defendant (perpetrator) can call friends as his or her witnesses. The shift is now towards coming to the victim’s aid.
Though agreeing that stricter policies should be in place for offenders, Freshman Amin Mustafa believes rape cases are still highly sensitive and require a lot of investigation before a conclusion can be reached. “I still believe witnesses should be part of the process because there have been previous cases where the so-called offenders have been set up and a student gets in trouble through no fault of his own.”
Similar to Morgan’s sentiments, Vice President Joe Biden expressed his belief that “No matter what she’s wearing, no matter whether she’s in a bar, in a dormitory, in the back seat of a car, on a street, drunk or sober — no man has a right to go beyond the word ‘no.’ And if she can’t consent, it also means no.”
Regardless of sex, this is an issue to be worried about. Even if you weren’t worried before or still aren’t, remember that person who has no where to turn or run to may very well be your friend, a sibling, a cousin, or child. If you see a person’s shirt being unbuttoned without consent, stop the problem from going further. If you’re the person whose shirt was unbuttoned without consent, and the problem did go further, don’t be afraid to talk; wear your heart on your sleeve.
