Sexual assault.
"No."
Legal charges.
"Please stop."
Prosecution.
"I don't want to."
Plea deal.
This was the reality for a foreign college student who sexually assaulted a fellow female student in 2015. After she denied consent, the male student proceeded to assault her. He received five charges for the incident, though after he accepted a plea deal, four of the five charges were removed. However, the male student must pay a whopping $410 fine.
That’s right—no jail time, no passport removal, no suspension, no expulsion. But, he has to pay a $410 fine. Plus, he got an extra special financing option that allows him to make monthly payments! What is this? A car loan? No, the price is a little short of a car loan... That’s only $34.17 per month. Wait a second, that’s lower than my credit card bill’s minimum monthly payment. But he still gets the extra special customer-specific financing benefits of purchasing a new car.
Not quite a new car, but for $800, you can purchase an iPhone 6s Plus at Best Buy. This student’s punishment for sexual assault only costs as much as half an iPhone.
In this case, sexual assault cost less than a laptop. It cost less than an iPhone. It cost less than a a down payment on a car. It cost less than a refrigerator. It cost less than an apartment’s rent for a month. It cost less than a month’s living expenses.
So instead of missing out on funds to pay for a year’s tuition, he’s missing out on half of an iPhone. Instead of not being able to afford rent for a year, he won’t have the funds to cover only a month’s rent. Instead of not being able to afford doing it again, he’ll only have to sleep on a friend’s couch for a month.
And what message does this give, exactly, to the community and to families and to young girls and young boys? Committing sexual assault has a price. A small one. Committing sexual assault = owning up to it + having misdemeanors dropped + smaller criminal record + an article about yourself in the local paper - $410. And that’s that.
Is putting a small price on sexual violence the message we want to give to the world? Do we want to tell the world that sexual violence isn’t that bad if you can just own up to it? If this student was fined a thousand times more, did time, and was listed as a sexual offender, would others think a little harder before they continued without consent? Would others think a little harder when someone said “no” or “stop?” My answer is yes, they would: $410 is a petty, scanty, insufficient, inadequate, scrubby, undersized, and exiguous fee to pay for an incident that will scar the victim for life. Step it up. If this makes you want to punch something, then don't stand for a $410 fine.
Don't stand for sexual violence. Fight it.
