Also, that poor young girl from Missouri! Our countries rape culture is sickening. Seriously, forcing her to write an apology letter… if I was her parents I would have spit in the principals face. It is absolutely atrocious to think people with this mindset are in charge of the well being of hundreds of students.

I’m glad that she brought up that the girl who was the victim of an on-campus rape in 2009 was criticized for not protecting herself. Too often, ‘rape prevention’ is just another form of victim blaming. It is never the victim’s fault. Ever. And it can’t be prepared for, either. No one leaves the house in the morning thinking, “I wonder if I’ll be raped today at school? Gosh, I’d better be prepared!”

I don’t know how other universities handle it, but mine offered a presentation on ‘Sexual Assault Prevention Strategies’ for free last fall, presented by the health center on campus. I attended it out of curiosity. It was full of good advice, to always travel in pairs, to never leave your drink unattended, etc. These are good things. The audience was mostly women. But the thing about sexual assault is that no matter how prepared you are, you never expect to be molested or raped. Ever. But it can still happen, no matter the circumstances. It happens in schools, it happens in churches, it happens in one’s own home, it happens in nursing homes, it happens everywhere. It happens to women all over the planet, no matter their age, weight, race, religion, the size of their social circle, or their blood alcohol content level. There is no such thing as prevention, other than maybe carrying a loaded weapon with you at all times, wearing video and audio surveillance equipment concealed on your person, and having one hell of an attorney on your side.

What always surprises me is that this kind of presentation isn’t also geared toward men on campus, who are statistically more likely to commit a form of sexual assault than be the victim of one. Why don’t they have presentations along the lines of, “How to see your female friends as humans, rather than objects” or “How to not rape someone”. Or have significantly more stringent punishments for anyone who is implicated in the case of a sexual assault. It seems like every year, another young woman on a school’s campus (usually college, but high school is also becoming sickeningly common) is publicly shamed for coming forward and reporting her sexual assault, damaging the reputation of a male student in the process. It needs to end. We must seek and demand justice. Things must change.

That was long. I just wanted to say kudos to the author for being as outraged as I am. We must never stop speaking up.