I’m a freshman here at Ohio University. The only problem with that is that I’m an English major.

There’s not anything inherently bad about being an English major—but things have changed for me. A fourteen year old sexual assault case just came up involving Escobedo, an English professor, and his students. The first sexual assault case was reported to have happened in 2003, the next in 2005, and two in 2015.

It has been said that there was non-consensual sexual contact and that he used his power over their grades to manipulate them.

The most terrifying fact about this that I have heard that the English department knew about it the entire time, kept it under wraps, and defended him until it was impossible to do so in the public eye. Regardless, people in my major know him and were friends with him. Some still could be.

I’m a freshman. I could have had him for a teacher.

This is especially horrifying because I’m an English major. I don’t get to get away from the people who supported Escobedo.

I have to go to my English teacher’s office for conferences in a tiny room in Ellis, and now the only thing I can think while I’m there is, “Did you support him? The man who may have committed sexual assault? What are your ties to him?”

I don’t know which teachers I can trust. I’m considering changing my major or switching to a new school entirely because I don’t know what to do at this point.

I had a conversation with a professor about this case today, and the idea of this was so upsetting that I left crying. As a student, I don’t feel I’m being heard and I feel terrified being here. I have every right to be angry. I have every right to be afraid, but the problem is that I shouldn’t have to be afraid of the people who are supposed to be my mentors.

This is supposed to be my home away from home.

We pride ourselves as being a Bobcat Nation. Even during my orientation, the one thing I heard the most was the slogan, “Once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat.”

But if you ignore the safety of your students and spit on the experience of sexual assault survivors, then are you really priding yourself on being a part of the Bobcat family? When does money and image become more important than the service you are providing for your students?

I am also a sexual assault victim, and this is a big slap in the face to anyone who has ever been assaulted, especially on this campus. My sexual assault is what keeps me away at night and makes me feel like there’s a toxin in my veins I can’t get rid of. To think that OU as an institution would condone such behavior makes me sick to my stomach.

If Ohio University keeps him on the staff, I am sure that they will lose students next year, and I don’t blame them. I’m not even sure if I want to stay, but I have made this place my home and I

want to stay more than anything. If the university cares about the safety of the students as much as it says it does, they will fire him and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

If OU doesn’t fire Escobedo, especially now that everything has gone to light, they will have lost the trust of the majority of their students. It is not only disheartening but pathetic that OU readily condemns peaceful protestors but not potential sexual predators within its own staff.