45% of schools with more than 1,000 students reported zero rape cases for 2012. Shenanigans!

Bullshit, friends, bullshit. The Washington Post put together some scary information. Essentially, they list out schools across the US with more than 1,000 students and the number of rapes that school reported. Fun fact, Penn State is number one with all of 56 reported rapes. Additionally, as the title of this post points out, 45% of schools are claiming no rapes. Yeah, that’s not true. Estimates put the number of sexual assaults at 1 in 5 college aged women. That is a conservative estimate. So unless some small school has the entirety of their population sexually assaulted then someone is fibbing.

Shame, shame on you US colleges and universities. I haven’t seen the hard data, but I’m going to say it, these figures are statistically improbable. So if these schools aren’t covering up rapes, which is an impossibility folks, then students are afraid to come forward and report. The general rule of thumb being discussed is that if a school has a low number of reported rapes that doesn’t mean there are no rapes; it means “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Some of the low-lights from the total number of sexual assaults reported between 2010 and 2012:

• Penn State: 84
• John Carroll University: 7
• The George Washington University: 37
• University of Maryland, Baltimore: 0

All of this brings me back to my main question of the summer: how do we get The Washington Post to stop talking about rape? This might be the question of our time.

Ok guys, the White House is all over the campus rape thing

*Brushes shoulders off* On it. The White House press release begins by low-balling sexual assault statistics and framing it as a women’s issue because…yeah. The White House established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault earlier this year. The purpose was to strengthen efforts and provide schools with tools to combat sexual assault. The Task Force has announced a series of actions:

“(1) identify the scope of the problem on college campus, (2) help prevent campus sexual assaults, (3) help schools respond effectively when a student is assaulted, and (4) improve, and make more transparent, the federal government’s enforcement efforts.”

The Task Force also shared recommendations after listening to a variety of people:

• They are providing schools with a toolkit to develop and conduct surveys on the awareness and attitudes of students about the issue.
• They are going to explore legislative or administrative options to require an evidence-based survey in 2016 be conducted by universities and colleges.
• The CDC will disseminate a review of prevention strategies to reduce sexual violence.
• The CDC and DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women will pilot and evaluate prevention strategies on campuses.
• Develop a bystander intervention program to change social norms.
• Federal funds will be used to facilitate survivors talk to someone in confidence.
• They will prove a sample of the reporting and confidentiality polices.
• They want to provide specialized training for school officials.
• They are going to provide schools with guidance on how to investigate and improve the adjudicative protocols.
• They launched a website—www.NotAlone.gov—(which we’ll hope is not made by the Healthcare people) to make enforcement data public and make other resources available to student and schools.
• The Department of Education is going to be clearer on the legal obligations schools have.
• Both the DOJ and Department of Education have entered an agreement to clarify the agency’s roles.

The Task Force has some next steps. I’m not loving these recommendations or immediate actions. I can’t help it. I suppose it is because we’ve heard this all before, and they say nothing about penalties for schools which do not comply. We’re also not talking about the process for those accused: will they be legally tried? If they are and are found guilty will it be in a court of law or just on campus? Will these people found guilty be expelled? Will the victims/survivors be compensated for their distress? For example, rape survivors often suffer from depression and their grades slip, etc. All around, these recommendations and actions seem very preliminary, which is work feminists did decades ago. Step up federal government, read some work from the 60s, and let’s have some real action.

I also, think the education attempts at this age is too little too late. We should be talking about comprehensive sexual education, rape, and consent with children. If you go to the website, President Obama’s quote, “Perhaps most important, we need to keep saying to anyone out there who has ever been assaulted: you are not alone. We have your back. I’ve got your back.” Nice sentiment. I’ll believe it when I see it. And, while we’re on the subject, this “innovative” crap getting sent to the Department of Defense or will they be forming an agreement with the DOJ on their own to address sexual assault in the military. Will the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and House Committee on Foreign Affairs be meeting with the DOJ to discuss the rates of sexual assault in the Peace Corps and what is to be done when these crimes are committed overseas on a government placement? In all these cases, for some reason rape isn’t taken as a serious crime, people aren’t held accountable, and institutions with government funding look the other way. My tolerance for this bull shit came and went. Slow clap for doing as little as possible and pretending like it is a big fucking deal.

Male students who have been disciplined over sexual assault charges are suing the institutions under Title IX.

I’ve written about this briefly before, men using Title IX against their schools because they were disciplined, but not found legally guilty. First, my undergrad institution pushed for students to handle sexual assault cases on campus (many schools tell victims that their names will be released to the public if they file a police report), and then everything is covered-up handled internally. The point of all this of course is so the schools (and perpetrators) can shirk bad press.

The natural conclusion here would be then for accused male students to use Title IX, anti-gender discrimination laws, to make their case that these accusations are biased against men. Take a minute. A Bloomberg report found a series of male college students who were disciplined through campus sexual assault investigations, and now are filing cases. Such illustrious universities include Xavier, Vassar College, William College, Bucknell, St. Joseph’s, and College of the Holy Cross.

An attorney who sued Holy Cross, Nicole Colby Longton claims that there is an increasing risk of being subject of such allegations combined with a biased school-run justice system (because you know it is the accused who suffers here), “One sexual encounter than involves alcohol, and the next thing you know you’re accused and expelled and branded for life. Schools are going to push kids to have signed waivers before they have intercourse.”

I actually don’t think that idea is awful. Why not acknowledge you want to have sex and this are the things we want to do? Enthusiastic consent. But that isn’t practical. Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told Bloomberg, “parallel criminal-justice system run by school officials without legal training in which evidence and the burden of proof are scant and punishment is harsh.”

This is an interesting take, but how about a solution, all sexual assault should be handled by the police if a report is being made? So the report notes that sexual assault reports have increased by 30% between 2009 and 2011, which is a total of 3,771 in 2011. Of course, this doesn’t mean more false reports are being made, but instead more people feel comfortable coming forward or perhaps rape culture has told people they will get away with rape. [For those ready to accuse me of misandry, according to RAINN about 10% of rape victims are men.]

Of course, the Department of Education is getting more and more complaints against universities for the schools’ alleged inability to prevent sexual assaults. In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated one-fifth of undergraduate women experiences attempted or completed sexual assault. Of course, the Obama administration has come out pressuring schools to pursue assault claims or be in violation of Title IX.

Once again, I don’t think people should be falsely accused, but every accusation should be taken seriously and investigated by law enforcement. This shouldn’t be confused with mandatory reporting. Victims should have the right to decide if they want to prosecute, but allowing schools to handle these things is ridiculous.