Can someone help me? Is it my fault? What just happened? What Am I going to do? What did I do to deserve this? All these are questions a victim ask themselves after the are sexually assaulted… Sexual Assault on College Campuses is a huge epidemic and campus authorities seem to ignore it in most cases. Sexual Assault does not just happen to women, but men too. According to the article “Can Someone Help Me”, by David French, states that 20 percent of women and 5 to 8 percent of men are sexually assaulted on college campuses over a four-year college career.
Knowing these percentages of sexual assault on campuses, you would think campuses are actively doing something. The Hunting Ground, a 2015 Documentary reviewing rape on college campuses, goes through a number of rape cases that have happened on big named college campuses, but the dean of students or the president of the school doesn’t do a thing about it. If the news is prod-casting these events, then why isn’t the school doing anything about it? It doesn’t make sense.
Stated in the Article, “Sexual Assault: We Believe You”, by Marcia G. Yerman, “April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but for those whose lives dramatically changed when they entered the reality of rape survivor, there is no 30-day expiration date.” The victims basically have to live in fear every day, and that isn’t ok. The article is based off of the documentary, The Hunting Ground. The two girls that the documentary focuses on are Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino. These two former students of UNC of Chapel Hill were sexually assaulted on their campuses… Clark and Pino went to the board about what had happened to them, and the college didn’t do anything about the accusations. Clark and Pino were upset that their school didn’t do anything about what was happening on their campus. But, they weren’t the only ones.
Pino came across Title IX, which states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Soon after Clark and Pino filed a Title IX complaint, and UNC was very upset and basically said that the accusation was false. They [Pino and Clark] continued to fight for their rights, and for their perpetrators to receive punishment.
Another case that the documentary talks about is a great example of colleges not doing anything about sexual assault. Erica Kinsman a student from FSU, confidently talks about what happened to her, in detail that night. She went straight to the hospital after she was sexually assaulted, and when her kit came back the police had everything they needed to go out and look for her perpetrator. Unfortunately, they didn’t. The following semester, Kinsman went into one of her last classes of the day, and she saw him . . . The professor called out “Jameis Winston” and she knew that was him. She notified the detective that was on her case, and about a year after her being sexually assaulted, Winston was finally brought in for questioning. Even though the DNA test came out positive for Jameis Winston, they didn’t charge him with rape. The only reason why he got away with it was because he was the quarterback for FSU. People probably thought Kinsman just wanted his [Winston] money, which is not true at all.
Sexual Assault is a very serious issue that many college campuses are facing. It has gotten to the point where people are dropping out of school, self-harming, or even worse committing suicide. Sexual Assault cases are tough, yes, but if the perpetrator is still walking around on campus without suffering a consequence, what are you going to do about it? Be the change on your campus, like Clark and Pino did. If your campus won’t do something about it, you do something about it. I have a professor who told our class, that if we need a cheerleader, he would be ours. So find yourself a cheerleader on your campus, or on a different campus. It all starts with YOU. Someone is walking around on your campus who is struggling with sexual assault, and maybe they have gone to the dean of students or the president of the college and they haven't done a thing about the situation. These survivors are constantly told it is their fault, but it is not. What are you going to do it to stop this epidemic?
