Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about rape culture in the United States and how different college campuses nationwide either add to the problem or detract from it. For the most part, I believe that a large percentage of colleges and universities genuinely try their best to protect their students from sexual assault, and to seek justice for them when it is required. But, like almost every rule, there seems to be an exception. And that exception involves college athletes. Every college campus claims to prioritize rape/sexual assault victims above college athletes, but does that actually happen? When it comes to allegations of sexual assault against star athletes, do universities really rally behind the victims? Or do they rally behind the “victimless” athletes that the judicial system tends to let off without a scratch. You tell me.
Almost everyone is familiar with the Stanford rape case involving Brock Turner, and many people (including myself) were completely outraged when Turner was released from jail after serving only three months for three different felony counts of sexual assault. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a felony conviction is a “crime for which the punishment in federal law may be death or imprisonment for more than one year.” So if Brock Turner was found guilty of three felonies, how did he get away with serving only three months? Well, it’s simple.
Brock Turner was a white, clean cut, Olympic-bound college athlete attending a highly prestigious university. He didn’t fit the typical mold for a rapist. So even though a jury of 12 people found Brock Turner guilty, it didn’t matter. Because Judge Aaron Persky didn’t. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Persky graduated from Stanford. Or maybe Persky was assigned to the case because he had a history of letting college athletes off easy. Either way, Persky happened to be the judge in charge of handing down Turner’s final sentencing, so he ended up serving only three months in county jail for a crime that should’ve landed him six years in prison.
But Turner definitely wasn’t the first college athlete to be let off easy, and unfortunately won’t be the last. Judicial systems and universities both do it. In 2013, Sam Ukwuachu, a football player for Baylor University, was indicted and tried for sexual assaulting one of his peers. It was discovered during his trial that Baylor University had already “investigated” the incident and cleared him of all charges. Under Title IX, colleges and universities are required to thoroughly investigate all allegations of sexual assault. How is it possible that the police found enough evidence to indict and prosecute Ukwuachu, but after a “thorough investigation,” Baylor University couldn’t even find one shred of evidence substantial enough to take the victim’s claims seriously?
Both of these cases seem to support the notion that college athletes don’t have the same repercussions for their actions as everyone else. And thinking this, believing that universities and judges always rally behind athletes when it comes to sexual assault cases, is a dangerous train of thought. Especially for women who experience sexual assault at the hands of an athlete.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was walking home to her apartment when she crossed paths with a college athlete in the elevator. She asked him what floor he wanted to get off on and he replied that he was “just riding.” When it was time to get off the elevator, she promptly exited and noticed him follow her out. He quickly struck up a conversation, and they engaged in a few minutes of polite chatter. Shortly after, she informed him that she was ready to go to bed but offered to carry on the conversation the next morning. He rejected her offer. He was drunk, and insisted on hanging out that night. After many attempts to convince him otherwise, he became aggravated and followed her into her apartment.
Scared, she locked herself into the bathroom and sent a series of frantic text messages to all of her friends, I was one of them. She begged us to come upstairs and help her get rid of the drunk man who had forced his way into her apartment.
After a few minutes, two of our close, male friends agreed to help her. They quickly walked up to her apartment and firmly asked him to leave. His speech escalated into curse words and angry shouts, causing my friends to conclude that their best option was to run out of the apartment and call the police. They ran down to my apartment as fast as they could and relayed what had happened to the rest of us. Upset, everyone rallied together and decided to try and kick him out of the apartment one more time before calling the police, but by the time we got up there, he was gone.
The next morning over breakfast, a few of our friend’s tried to convince her to file a police report. They wanted to make sure that he would never force his way into another girl’s apartment again. But she said no. She didn’t want to file a police report because she was scared of speaking out against a college athlete. She was scared of what the public would say, of what her peers would say. She was worried that her credibility would be questioned and she was convinced that no one would believe her over him anyways.
This is a perfect example of the horrible rape culture that court cases like Brock Turner's and Sam Ukwuachu's promote. Women are scared to file police reports because they’re scared of what their university officials, and the policeman who rally behind their university athletes, will say. They’re scared to come forward because they’re scared that people won’t believe them. They're scared that they’ll be kicked out of school for breaking the honor code. They’re scared that they’ll be asked derogatory questions like, “What were you wearing at the time?” or "Are you sure you weren't asking for it?" They’re scared that their sexual assault won't be taken seriously, and to many victims, that's worse than not coming forward at all.
I pray for a world where victims can come forward without fear. A world where everyone is served the justice they deserve despite their social standing or athletic status. But until then, the only thing we can do is fight to demolish rape culture.
When you hear slut shaming around campus, shut it down. When someone tells you about their sexual assault, listen to it intently; taking every accusation seriously. Because I want to make a couple of things clear: Rape is never the victims fault. Sexual assault is never the victims fault. And contrary to what Brock Turner and his family may want you to believe, there is absolutely no excuse for inflicting either one of these things upon anyone.
So join the fight. Start taking the small steps necessary to end a big problem. It may not seem like much, but "...a journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step..."
