It is estimated that one in every five women and one in every thirty-three men will be sexually assaulted in college. For one victim, that horror became a reality before she even began to live on campus.
Earlier this week, while scrolling through my Facebook timeline, my heart sank as I came across an article entitled “Father, son charged in drug, assault case at ISU.”
According to the article, the incident occurred at around 10pm in one of the dorms during Illinois State University’s orientation, which they call “Preview.” During Preview, the parents and students of the incoming freshman class are invited to stay in the dorms, as the orientation lasts longer than one day. One parent, a father, offered to buy alcohol for his son and some of the other students. After returning, he slipped a pill into a girl’s drink. His son followed the victim back to her room after she left, raped her, and forbade her from leaving the room.
After their arrest, it was discovered that the father had a criminal history, including charges for domestic violence, violence using weaponry and attempted murder.
It made the news just a few days after the article was published.
The worst part of it all, was how anti-climactic the end of this horrible story was. The article stated that the father-son criminal duo was arrested as they were boarding a train back to their home in Chicago the following day.
Just heading home. As if never happened.
Their version of the story ended when the police showed up to arrest them. On the other hand, that girl, the victim, is still living that story, and for her, the story has no end.
Imagine how you felt less than a month before you started your freshman year. Probably a whirlwind of emotions, if you were anything like me. Excited, nervous, sad, thrilled, you name it, I was feeling it. Orientation was a time to get acclimated, to get a taste of what living on campus would be like. Not only is this girl probably now terrified to step foot onto campus again, it is highly likely for her to be untrusting of the opposite gender, and other people in general. It is quite possible that she will be living in fear for the rest of her life.
This is the second heavily publicized sexual assault incident on a college campus that I have heard about in less than a year. The first was at Stanford, where a girl was raped while heavily intoxicated, to a point where she did not remember a single moment of it occurring.
I have no words to describe hearing these tragedies, I only feel disgust. I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping a close eye on your surroundings, your drink, and most importantly, consent. We live in a world where, unfortunately, you can’t necessarily trust everyone you surround yourself with, and therefore, there is always that fear living in the back of everyone’s mind that the worst-case scenario may become a reality, as it did for the ISU and Stanford victims. More than anything, I would love to see the probabilities of such incidents decrease to zero, and to see our college campuses become places that are free from crime, and more importantly, free from fear.
