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A Rape Epidemic

Sexual assault is something that we think will never happen to us. My perspective on this

has changed within the past year, as I personally know two people who have experienced sexual

assault. Part of the reason why one of the assaults occurred was due to the school’s culture of one

of the assailants. De La Salle High School has a history of having a nationally recognized

football team, and the faculty and administrators treats their football players like they are the

kings of the campus. The school’s football team appears to be given leniency when it comes to

misbehavior. This special treatment reinforces the idea that the football players can always get

what they want and it is perhaps part of the reason why this was the second reported occurrence

of sexual assault in two years.

This situation made me curious about schools, how they can create a rape culture, and

how rape cases can be mishandled. I researched a movie on Netflix called, The Hunting Ground.

This movie is a documentary about how colleges and universities in the United States have

mishandled sexual assault cases. In some of the stories presented, the colleges and universities

completely dismissed cases and did not try to investigate the incident, especially when the

student who was accused was an athlete. Often the victim received a lot of victim blaming and

inappropriate and irrelevant questions, which made it seem like it was his or her fault. This led

me to ask: What are colleges’ and universities’ sexual misconduct policies, and do they follow

through with them?

Sexual assault on college campuses has been an important topic of concern in the media

and government. Rape is currently the most underreported serious crime (Krakauer, 110). One in

four women are subject to sexual assault on college campuses and 10.8% of those who were

sexually assaulted reported sexual assault by force (AAU Campus Climate Survey). This is an

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extremely high number and shows how often sexual assault occurs on college campuses and why

it is important to address this topic. Part of this is due to the high percentage of partying and

alcohol consumption. In a recent study, 43% of victims used alcohol and 69% of the perpetrators

also used alcohol (Sexual Assaults on College Campuses Involving Alcohol). This is not a

surprise, since alcohol lowers your inhibition and judgement. Also, heavy drinking is very

common during college activities. Due to these recent findings, the Obama Administration chose

to make sexual assault on college campuses one of its issues to tackle. Therefore, new sexual

assault policy requirements have been put into place.

The first topic to address is the sexual misconduct policies which schools are required to

install and follow. Title IX has been the main document which schools have been following to

deal with sexual harassment and assault complaints. Title IX requires “All colleges and

universities to take immediate action to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and

address its effects...every college and university must have a set of procedures in place to

respond to sexual assaults complaints” (The Threat of Expulsion as Unacceptable Coercion).

Each school is required to have a Title IX Coordinator who is in charge of managing the

complaints and meeting with students to discuss them. This Title IX Coordinator, along with the

school, “must take immediate and appropriate steps to investigate” (Know Your Rights on

Campus: Sexual Assault and Harassment Under Title IX). There are three types of models which

schools must follow while investigating sexual assault complaints: traditional model, single

investigator model, or hybrid model. The traditional model involves a prior investigation to the

hearing and then an administrative or panel hearing. An administrative hearing involves only one

person, while a panel hearing involves at least three people. The victim and accused are both

present during the hearing. The single investigator model contains only one person investigating,

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interviewing both sides and witnesses, and then a conclusion is written. The hybrid model uses

both previous models, with a separate investigator gathering evidence and presenting it to a

panel, which then makes the final decision. These panels and hearings are not treated as criminal

hearings, but as college disciplinary hearings. Therefore, due process is often abridged and the

right to a legal counsel almost means nothing. The counsel on both sides are only allowed to

speak if the panel allows them to, and in most cases they are not. The highest punishment that

can be given in a college disciplinary hearing is expulsion.

The Obama Administration made sexual assault on college campuses a key issue. The

administration produced three crucial documents which changed the way colleges and

universities must handle sexual assault. These documents include Dear Colleague Letter,

Questions and Answers, and The Not Alone Report. The Dear Colleague Letter directs that

schools use the preponderance of the evidence standard for determining if the sexual assault

occurred. This standard allows that the “claimant is only required to prove that it is more likely

than not that the act of sexual violence happened”(The Threat of Expulsion as Unacceptable

Coercion). Therefore, the claimant only needs to prove that 51% of the evidence is credible,

which explains the “more likely than not” statement. This was instituted in order to protect the

claimant and to prevent future students from being sexually assaulted by the defendant. This is a

more aggressive technique that the government installed to prevent sexual assault on college

campuses. The second document, Questions and Answers, reinforces the use of a preponderance

of evidence, and made sure the schools did not have the victim and the accused in the same room

at the same time. This document also required the school to ensure each student’s safety,

especially if a criminal investigation was taking place at the same time (The Threat of Expulsion

as an Unacceptable Coercion). The third and final document, The Not Alone Report, set up a Commented [1]: MLA format?

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White House Task Force which would “provide the schools with prevention strategies, including

bystander prevention, a checklist when creating sexual misconduct policies, and put up a website

that allowed for students to file a complaint if the schools were not following their sexual

misconduct policies” ( The Threat of Expulsion as Unacceptable Coercion). The goal of the task

force was to make sure that colleges and universities have the tools needed to ensure policies and

that they know how to deal with sexual assault. All three documents provide more support to the

victims of sexual assault and attempts to prevent future sexual assaults.

Another important documents which contain information on how schools deal with

sexual assault are the Clery Act and Violence Against Women Act. The Clery Act “requires

colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to disclose campus

crime statistics, security information, and training and prevention efforts. Every school must

annually collect and report this information to the U.S. Department of Education” (Sexual

Harassment and Sexual Violence in Schools). To add onto this law, Congress reauthorized the

Violence Against Women Act, and added amendments which include sexual violence such as,

domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking (Violence Against Women Act). These two acts

were passed to help ensure colleges and universities are putting policies and programs in place to

prevent sexual assault and violence, and to document the statistics to see if they are working. In

2015, 89% of colleges and universities disclosed zero rape reports to the U.S. Department of

Education (89% of Colleges Reported Zero Incidents of Rape in 2015). This statistic can’t be

factual, and demonstrates that colleges and universities have tried to hide

reports they received. Reporting sexual assaults would reflect poorly on their school’s image.

In order to fully understand the policies for sexual assault, I interviewed Shanta

Jambotkar, a social worker and a counselor at UC Berkeley who specializes in sexual violence

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on campus. She reiterated the three documents the Obama Administration has put in place, and

stressed the importance that it protects the victim’s safety and makes it easier for the perpetrator

to be punished, “These three new documents are a step in the right direction for sexual assault on

college campuses. Unfortunately with our current president, I do not know how much farther it

will go, but hopefully with our next one we can focus again on improving sexual assault on

campus.” Jambotkar also stated how the enforcement of these policies need to be ensured in

order to protect students.

The next topic to address is if colleges and universities actually follow through with their

policies. In the case of the University of Montana, they did. In the four cases which were Commented [2]: remember to fix later

presented in Krakauer’s, Missoula, the University of Montana followed protocol and protected

the victim. They paid close attention to the Dear Colleague Letter and the preponderance of

evidence portion of that letter. In at least two cases, the University of Montana immediately

expelled the perpetrator, which was protocol. The aspect of the school which protected the

perpetrator and blamed the victim was the athletic department and the police of the town of

Missoula, itself. In multiple cases, employees of the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, Van

Valkenburg and Kirsten Pabst, protected the perpetrators and blamed the victim. Valkenburg

asked inappropriate and irrelevant questions, such as “Do you have a boyfriend?” Valkenburg

also would not file criminal charges against the other University of Montana students, because

there was not enough probable cause. However there was plenty, including DNA and evidence of

injury after the assault occurred. This shows how Valkenburg completely disregarded the clear

probable cause and credible evidence against the accused students. Through Vallkenburg’s

actions, he was acting as a protector of the perpetrators, not the victim. If he protected the victim,

he would have been sure to gather and take notice of all evidence, especially medical

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examinations, which are crucial and factual evidence in rape cases. Another member of the

Attorney’s Office, Kirsten Pabst failed to comply with Montana state law. In a separate case, the

County Attorney did not meet with the victim before deciding if she was going to charge the

perpetrator, which is clearly stated in MCA 46-24-104. Instead, she voluntarily acted as a

witness for the perpetrator at the University of Montana hearing. This clearly shows that she was

protecting the perpetrator and not the victim, which is part of her job. These two cases show how

part of the sexual assault issues on the University of Montana campus were due to the County

Attorney’s office protecting perpetrators and failing to do their jobs. This shows that students are Commented [3]: maybe add definition of attorney to
show lack of doing job
able to get away with assaulting others at a legal level, which is even more unacceptable than at a

university level.

Not all schools cooperate and follow through with Title IX and its federal policies.

Colleges and universities attempt to sweep sexual assault complaints under the carpet, so they do

not have to deal with them. By doing this, it helps protect the school’s image, which allows them

to not have to deal with a lawsuit. One way schools try to disregard sexual assault complaints is

to blame the victim and make them feel like it is their fault. Some of these tactics include asking

questions such as, “What were you wearing?”, “Were you drinking?” ,“Did you say no?” ,“How

did you say it?” “How many times did you say it?” These types of questions have been proven to

be asked at UC Berkeley, Florida State University and University of Southern California. UC

Davis even asked the victim if he wanted to drop out until everything blew over (The Hunting

Ground). These questions asked by school administration are inappropriate and make the victim

feel like it is their fault. In no way do they protect the student or give a “prompt and equitable

resolution for complaints” (Title IX). One student claimed UC Berkeley did not respond to her

complaint for seven months, which is a direct violation of Title IX. One of the most shocking of

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these stories is a claim by a victim that an administrator at University of North Carolina said to

them, “Rape is like a football game. If you looked back on the game, what would you do

differently in that situation?” (The Hunting Ground). How could one, let alone someone who is

supposed to protect students, compare a rape incident to a football game? This question directly

tried to make the victim ask herself what she did wrong in the situation and what she could have

done to prevent it, even though it is the rapist’s fault. No wonder why 88% of women sexually

assaulted on college campuses do not report their assault (The Sexual Victimization of College

Women). If this is what you had to endure trying to get justice for a traumatizing event that

happened to you, would you report it?

Numerous schools do attempt to follow through with their sexual misconduct policies,

but most complaints do not result in proper punishment, which should be expulsion. For

example, UC Berkeley had 78 reported sexual assault cases, but only three resulted in

expulsions, Dartmouth College had 155 reported assaults, and only had three expulsions,

Stanford University had 259 assaults and only one expulsion, University of North Carolina had

136, with 0 expulsions. University of Virginia 205, with 0 expulsions (The Hunting Ground).

These numbers prove that colleges and universities do not follow through with their sexual

misconduct policies. It is untrue that at the University of Virginia 205 sexual assault complaints,

turned out to be false complaints. Only 2-8% of sexual assault complaints are false (The Hunting

Ground). Which means at the University of Virginia at least 195 cases are true. Also, in order to Commented [4]: check math

qualify for expulsion, only 51% of the evidence needs to be true. Therefore out of 205 cases, at

least one would have 51% credible evidence. Clearly, these schools protected the perpetrators

and not the victims.

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Stacie Besgano, a guidance counselor at Carondelet High School, noted that ensuring

student safety, especially victims of sexual assault, is apart of a school’s job and that school is

supposed to be a safe environment to learn. Besgano said, “Schools need to protect the victim,

ensure safety, and make sure they are following protocol when it comes to sexual assault cases.”

She also noted that guidance counselors need to check up on the student and make sure they are

mentally stable. This enforces that colleges campuses need to protect students and with the

research presented above, they clearly have not been following through at 100%.

Colleges and universities typically like to protect student athletes more than any other

group when it comes to sexual assault cases. Student athletes often generate more money and

popularity for the school, which is why colleges and universities protect them. However only 4%

of college students are athletes, but they commit 19% of sexual assaults on campus, and the

schools allow it (The Hunting Ground). At Notre Dame University campus police are not even

allowed to contact the player or the athletic department if the student is being investigated of a

crime (The Hunting Ground). Numerous schools do not investigate or punish the student until

after an athlete’s season ends. For example, at the University of Oregon, two basketball players

were allowed to play in the NCAA tournament although they were being investigated for gang

rape. They were then expelled two months after the tournament ended. University of Michigan

allowed a football player accused of rape to play for a full two seasons, and then expelled him a

month after his final game (The Hunting Ground). These stories show that schools give special Commented [5]: find better word

treatment to their athletes when it comes to sexual assault cases. In these cases schools do not

immediately investigate, come to a resolution with student athletes, and they prioritize the sport

and winning over their other students’ safety and mental health.

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The current Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, has currently rescinded the Obama

Administration's Question and Answer document and is planning on changing the use of the

preponderance of evidence standard to what our current justice system uses, innocent until

proven guilty (New U.S. Sexual Misconduct Rules). The goal is to increase the rights of the

accused to what they are in our current justice system. This can help with those who are falsely

accused, but it does not help victims. With our current justice system, only 5 out of 1000 rapes

lead to a felony conviction (The Criminal Justice System Statistics). Within a college hearing

which does not have official judges and lawyers, that statistic is not predicted to increase. This

will make it more difficult for sexual offenders to be punished, and will threaten the victim’s

safety. It will also decrease the likeliness of victims reporting their assault to the school, since it

is very unlikely that their assaulter will be punished. This can promote more assaults and make

school an unsafe place for students.

Over the course of my research, I have been appalled and disgusted by the

disrespect that colleges and universities have for sexual assault victims. Their lack of responding

on time and asking inappropriate questions is disappointing and discourages the reporting of

sexual assault. I am also dismayed that schools protect the perpetrator by not expelling them,

especially athletes. It is encouraging to know the Obama Administration did put into place

stronger sexual assault policies, but the government also needs to enforce them. Hopefully, with

documentaries like The Hunting Ground, and student activism, colleges and universities will

follow through with their sexual misconduct policies and make their campuses a safer place for

all students

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Works Cited

Beaver, William. “Campus Sexual Assault: What We Know and What We Don't.”

Proquest, 2017.

Dick, Kirby, director. The Hunting Ground. Netflix, The Weinstein Company, 2015.

Krakauer, Jon. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.

Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016.

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McGowan, Casey. “The Threat of Expulsion as Unacceptable Coercion: Title IX, Due

Process, and Coerced Confessions | Emory University School of Law | Atlanta, GA.”

Emory University School of Law, 2017, law.emory.edu/elj/content/volume-66/issue-

5/comments/threat-expulsion-coercion-title-ix-due-process-confessions.html.

“The Role Alcohol Plays in Sexual Assaults on College Campuses.” Alcohol.org,

www.alcohol.org/effects/sexual-assault-college-campus/.

“AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (2015).” Association of

American Universities (AAU), 2015,

www.aau.edu/key-issues/aau-climate-survey-sexual-assault-and-sexual-misconduct-

2015.

“AAUW Issues: Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence in School.” AAUW,

www.aauw.org/what-we-do/public-policy/aauw-issues/sexual-harassment-violence-in-

school/.

“Know Your Rights on Campus: Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault under Title IX.”

AAUW, www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-on-

campus/campus-sexual-assault/.

“The Sexual Victimization of College Women.” National Criminal Justice Reference

Service, www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf.

“Violence Against Women Act.” NNEDV,

nnedv.org/content/violence-against-women-act/.

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