As we all know, last week the school sent out a campus wide email regarding a sexual assault that occurred in a dorm. Sexual assault has recently become a huge issue, as it should be, in the news. Multiple men and women have stepped up and were brave enough to come forward to name their attackers for the world to hear. Harvey Weinstein, Ben Affleck, Kevin Spacey, even former President George W. H. Bush were recently named sexual attackers in the industry. In an article posted on People.com, there is a list of 64 Hollywood figures that have spoken out against Weinstein. The news has at least one new story of a man or women coming out and sharing their story of an assault. The stories are alarming to read, and it’s even more alarming at the lack of concern people are showing. Sexual assault is not just something to brush aside and ignore, it’s a common occurrence. It is statistically shown that every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Rainn.org, where the stats are shown, also stated that “on average, there are 321,5000 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States.”
Picture of the 21 women out of 40 that have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. (Image Source)
Sexual assault can happen everywhere, and as mentioned before, there was a sexual assault that happen just last week in our own neighborhood. In our dorms. Everyone on campus heard what happened and some were sent a sketch the police made of the attacker. While it is comforting knowing that the police made an effort to tell people what the attacker looked like, but that’s all we found out. We were sent two emails, got a sketch and that was the end of it. It was news people woke up, waking up to finding out there is a rapist on campus. Then as the day went on and the days past, nothing was done. That is alarming. A young girl, who thought she was safe in her dorm, was attacked and it seems to be swept under the rug. In most dorms there are roughly 100 people on each floor, so that could mean that about 50% of the McAlister population are women, and the other 50% are men. Of that 50% one of them could the attacker, who is still at large. Knowing how dorms work, you have to sign in to get in or be signed in by a friend who lives there. The attacker was in the building and it can be assumed he knew the girl or a girl who lived in that dorm, since it is a common fact that most rape occurs by someone that the victim knew. The police and the campus police should have been on top of this, questioning people and asking the front desk police if they knew of anyone who fit the profile of the sketch who signed in that day or was signed in. This assault should be the top story that the police should be focused on. While there are many terrible things that have happen this semester in and around our school, such as the shooting at Virginia’s, the recent racial/racist costumes two C of C students wore for Halloween, but this assault should be the top priority at the moment.
This is the third rape, that we know of, that has happened on campus. First one being a rape of a freshmen at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity in August of 2016. The second one was an almost rape at Liberty dorms in November of 2016, where a young girl was being attacked by a male in her dorm. She escaped and started a fire drill to get away from her attacker. Both attacks didn’t seem to be the top priority of the school. I certainly don’t remember being sent an email about the August rape, but remember it being reported on local news channels. The second one was not talked about at all, only hearing the next morning about why the fire drill last those 2 long hours. Sexual assault on college campus need to discussed more. There are multiple stories of women being raped and their rapist being found not guilty or paying off the bail and not do any hard time. The story at Georgetown, where a young girl carried around a mattress after she was raped and after finding out her attacker wasn’t found guilty and walked out of the court house free. Glenn McConnell has shown his true colors this semester of not making the safety of his students a top priority. McConnell letting Confederate rally’s that could potentially harm the black community on campus still be held. Not letting students on campus know when to evacuate when Hurricane Irma became a huge threat until a few days before it struck, causing many students to pay for unreasonably priced airfares to get back home safe. Letting school continue when there was an active shooter on King Street. Now this, sending an email detailing us about the sexual assault but not letting us know what will be done. Young lives, lives that will one day take over and lead this world, are at risk. This school and this school’s leaders need to set out their priorities