"Their stories — delivered in sorrow and rage, with misting eyes and squared jaws — make this imperfect movie a must-watch work of cine-activism, one that should be seen by anyone headed to college and by those already on campus." — The New York Times

The issue of sexual assault on college campuses is something that is very real. The movie, The Hunting Ground brings the 20-25% of female students who are sexually assaulted on campus to life. I highly recommend that females, incoming college freshman and parents view this film to understand how extreme this issue really is.

*WARNING* This article involves some heartbreaking stories, facts, and spoilers to the movie itself.

"The first few weeks I made some of my best friends...but two of us were sexually assaulted before classes even started" — Annie Clark (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill).

"I was actually a virgin...which adds a bit to it...I couldn't move. I could hear the laughter outside the door, everybody dancing...why am I not screaming?" — Andrea Pino (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill).

Both of these instances happened at parties where drinking was involved. This does NOT justify what happened to these young women.

Throughout this movie, each individual who shares their story also explains how the school did nothing to help them. Instead, the school blamed the victim. Which leads to this outrageous percentage; 88% of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report (The Hunting Ground, 2015). Many people may ask, why wouldn't they report? Why didn't they contact the police? Well, for one; about 26% of rape reports to police lead to arrests and only 20% lead to prosecutions (2010). In some circumstance they percentages may seem high, but when it comes to justice for sexual assault victims they are extremely low.

When it comes to the school, administration is persistent with questions about the victims story. They ask "where you drinking?" , "how did you say no?" , etc. They usually want to brush off the incident because of the affect it will have on the school's ratings. However, the sad truth is, the percentage of sexual assault claims that were found to be false were; 8% (1992), 3% (2005), 2% (2006), 7% (2008), and 5% (2014).

In 2012, 45% of colleges reported 0 sexual assaults on their campuses (The Hunting Ground, 2015). Every time a crime like this is reported, the school continues to go down the list of "safest college campuses" which eventually can lead to a suspension in funding for the school as a whole, even the shutting down if deemed too dangerous of an environment. In the movie alone, it is clear that having nearly half of college campuses reporting no sexual assaults is not even close to being accurate:

Harvard 2009-2013: 135 reported sexual assaults, 10 suspensions.
Berkley (California) 2008-2013: 78 reported sexual assaults, 3 expulsions.
Dartmouth 2002-2013: 115 reported sexual assaults, 1 expulsion.
Stanford 1996-2013: 259 reported sexual assaults, 1 expulsion.
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 2001-2013: 136 reported sexual assaults, 0 expulsions.
University of Virginia 205 reported sexual assaults, 0 expulsions for sexual assault but 183 for cheating/honor code violations.

These numbers are insane. The amount of sexual assaults that are reported but have nothing done about them? If you were/are a parent, would you want your daughter/son (around 33 males are sexually assaulted on campus each year) going to a school like this? Not only that, but "repeat offenders commit an average of six or more acts of sexual assault" (2002). If these violators are not expelled or removed from the campus, who is stopping them from continuing this crime? No one.

The movie states, if there is no change, it will result in 100,000+ sexual assaults in the upcoming school year (2007). I'm sure, these numbers have decreased since the facts of this film. But it is still wise to educate your children and prepare them for what colleges hide from their fancy brochures.

It is important that people understand how serious sexual assault on college campuses are. Everyone needs to know what is going on at the place you plan to attend/send your child for the next 4+ years.

If you would like to read more stories about these crimes, visit; The Courage Project and/or See Act Stop.