Castleton Spartan

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: campus Life

By now, most of our community knows about the sexual assaults (and strange lurkings) on campus this past September and earlier this year. For many, it's the first time they have been jolted out of complacency about rape on college campuses, especially rape on our campus.

For those of us who are or have been involved over the years in educating our community about rape, incidents of sexual assault on campus are, unfortunately, not new. What is different and a little shocking about these most recent instances of sexual assault are that they seem to have been committed by strangers, not someone known to the victims, or at least that seems to be the assumption since we don't know for sure.

There are many, many examples of violent crime on college and university campuses, and evident to many now is the fact that college campuses are not bucolic refuges from the world of crime and violence. The violence hitting so close to home, however, has an especially harsh sting.



"Rape." Few words in our language have the power that the word "rape" does. Few words conjure up such a horrible image. Rape is a potentially life-threatening crime that many argue is the ultimate act of violation of one's body, spirit, and soul. In the 10 to 20 minutes it takes you to read and think about this article, four to16 people, primarily women, will be raped. Unfortunately, rape is a sinister part of the fabric of everyday life, affecting the quality of life of all of us. The face of a victim or potential victim is the face of your friend, the face of your sister, or nephew, or classmate, it is your face. My message here is for everyone.



She cut class to go drinking with a male friend.

They took a walk in the woods.

Everything was fine until he started making weird, crude remarks, which she ignored because she didn't want to make a scene or seem uncool.

He started to kiss her and touch her shirt.

She said "no," that she didn't feel comfortable.

He ignored her and became more aggressive.

She tried to push away.

He knocked her to the ground and tried to rape her.

She struggled and got away and never told a soul about the incident.

Not until over 20 years had passed did she realize how close she came that day to being raped and began to speak about it.

The sense of violation still lingers.



Myths and Facts

No crime is as misunderstood as is the crime of rape. The misunderstanding is the result of numerous myths about the crime, the offenders, and the victims. Rape myths need to be dispelled by providing factual information. For instance, some would argue the word rape means something different if it's preceded by the word "date" or "acquaintance," but most experts agree that it makes no difference - a person was still raped, someone was still victimized by a violent crime. Since no one is exempt from the possibility of rape, the more one knows, the more likely it is that that knowledge can help save someone from being victimized.

Continued...

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