Sexual Assault: Campus Problem

It's A Reality All Colleges And Universities Must Face, And Happens More Than They'd Like To Admit

(CBS)  No matter how prestigious the school or how talented the sports team, many colleges in the United States share a dark secret: the prevalence of sexual assault.

Annie Hylton had been at the University of Virginia for only five months before she says her world turned upside down.

"I went to the party and we were basically on a date and then it was one of those next things I knew woke up to being raped," she told The Early Show correspondent Tracy Smith.

Hylton did all the right things: She went to the hospital and university authorities. She pressed to have her case heard by the school judiciary board in this small conference room where she sat just feet from the man she says raped her.

"Even thinking about it now makes my chest get tight," she said. "Like, it's a horrible feeling."

That student still maintains the sex was consensual, but the panel ruled in Hylton's favor, saying the man violated the school's code of conduct that prohibits sexual assault. Despite their ruling, they didn't expel or even suspend him. Instead they continued to allow him to live in the same frat house where Hylton says he assaulted her.

"Why did I go through it?" she said. "Here a university board found a student responsible for violating one of their codes — a serious code — you know, violation of another person, and he wasn't kicked out! He was allowed to go to school at the university."

"I was very frustrated, I've been frustrated more than once," Claire Kaplan, the school's sexual assault counselor, who sat with Hylton during the hearing, said. "Even when a person's found not guilty, when I think the person was guilty, then you see them walking around and now they're walking around with a smirk on their face because they got away with it. It's so, so hard."

Hylton took her case public and the university responded by toughening its sexual assault policies. Still, they stand by the decision they made in Hylton's case.

"He did have a full sanction," former associate dean of students Shamim Sisson said. "And while I'm not at liberty to discuss that case with you, if you asked him if nothing happened to him he would not report it in that way. I'm sorry, and I know that that is the outcome sometimes, and it's one of the many really difficult parts of this process."

Kaplan said the university could have take steps to help sexual assault victims.

"I don't see this as done — to me what we do now is better than it was; we still have a way to go," she said.

Virginia is hardly the only university struggling with how to handle accusations of rape. According to a government study, less than 5 percent of attempted and completed rapes on campus actually are reported, and some students say it's the schools themselves that make it difficult to come forward.

"I was the victim of a crime. I was raped," former Notre Dame student Lindsay Charles said. "I didn't do anything wrong. and for them to say don't go to the police and report this crime I think is a travesty."

When Charles told staff at Notre Dame that she wanted to press charges against four football players, she says the university tried to talk her out of it. Even still, she went to the police.

"Because I went forward, because I did press charges, they couldn't sweep this one under the rug. They had to do the right thing," she said.

Notre Dame expelled all four students, who still claim they're innocent. The university wouldn't grant an interview and wouldn't comment on this case for privacy reasons, but responded with a statement:

"Our policies and procedures call for informing victims of all their options, including going to the police to file a complaint, so that they can decide how to proceed."

When Charles' case went to criminal court, only one of the young men was convicted on a lesser charge. She says no matter the outcome, just getting her case heard was far too tough on her.

"I'm not a shy girl. I'm not a quiet girl. I'm not a weak girl. And this is the hardest thing I've ever done," she said.

Daniel Carter, who works with students pressing rape charges, says cases like Charles' and Hylton's are far more common than universities admit.

"Colleges are doing a lot to help sex assault victims, but they need to do more, and we as a society need to do more," he said.

The best chance an assault victim has for justice is coming forward, Carter said. Hylton hopes her actions will give future victims a better chance.

"It was just one of these things," she said, "I have to do something because other women can't go through it the way I went through it."

For more on campus security, visit the Web site of the non-profit group Security on Campus, by clicking here. For help in picking a college based on its level of security, click here.

[KittyLamberta]

September 2009, SAFER dedicated to training and mentoring to college students who want to change how their college prevents and responds to sexual assault is part of an online contest to win $10,000. The Ideablob.com contest is entirely voter-determined, and we need your help to get the most votes! The $10,000 prize will go directly to an exciting new project, currently underway, that includes vastly expanding and improving our College Sexual Assault Policies Database and launching our online student resource library. This will take only a few minutes of your time, is completely free, and won?t result in spam ? but it will mean so much to us. To vote, please visit this link: http://database.safercampus.org/docs/drupal-5.5/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=48&qid=6277
When you click on the ?VOTE? button, it ask you to login/register. Include your name, email address, and a password. Ideablob will send you an email to confirm your registration - this is a very important step in the process, so please make sure you fully register. After you confirm, click on the above link one more time. Then ?VOTE? for our idea! Thanks!

[uvaparent]

Ponder this: A man is walking down the street heading towards home, slightly intoxicated, just having left a party. He sees an old friend; they stop and talk. Suddenly the friend says HAND ME YOUR WALLET. The man is shocked because he knows this person and is confused why he would suddenly behave in such a demanding manner. He says NO. The friend does not have a gun or knife; the man is frightened and protests but is unable to escape the situation. The friend takes his wallet and runs off. A CRIME has just been committed. The police arrest the friend for stealing since he did not have consent to take the wallet. No one questions if the CRIME was due to the man%u2019s intoxication or if he should have fought and screamed. Later that night, a woman is walking down the street heading towards home, slightly intoxicated, just having left the same party. She sees an old male friend; they stop and talk. Suddenly the friend says I WANT TO HAVE *** WITH YOU. The woman is shocked because she knows this person and is confused why he would suddenly behave in such a demanding manner. She says NO. The friend does not have a gun or knife; the woman is frightened and protests but is unable to escape the situation. The man sexually assaults her and runs off. A CRIME has just been committed yet the police do nothing even though the woman did not consent to ***. Everyone asserts that the CRIME is due to the woman%u2019s intoxication. Everyone questions IF a CRIME has been committed. Why?

[uvaparent]

I take exception with your reporter's comments that UVA has toughened it's Sexual Assault Policies. The University did revise the Confidentiality Clause and training of Sexual Assault Panel members in March 2005 - but I assure you, nothing has been done to address the rising statistics of reported rapes at UVA. I was part of a 2 year effort to force the University to review their policies, which is documented on the website www.uvavictimsofrape.com. Administrators such as Sisson, now retired, provided strong resistance to any change in policy or attitude. The sanction Sisson refers to in the Hylton case was minimal and should have been reported in your piece to illustrate how trivial the penalty was - the accused was not to go near the woman he raped. Can that even be considered a sanction? An important point missing from most stories of campus rape is that campus police are not staffed nor trained in how to deal with this type of crime. For example, at UVA a young woman reported that she had been raped to the campus police; 10 days passed before the UVA Detective interviewed the accused. The Detective failed to follow proper protocol; she did not conduct a thorough investigation nor did she gather forensic evidence - a scenario that occurs over and over not only at UVA, but at other universities throughout the states.

Bottom line: Sexual Assault is a CRIME; administrative policies and boards do not provide the means to eliminate this crime from our universities.

[uvaparent]

I take exception with your reporter's comments that UVA has toughened it's Sexual Assault Policies. The University did revise the Confidentiality Clause and training of Sexual Assault Panel members in March 2005 - but I assure you, nothing has been done to address the rising statistics of reported rapes at UVA. University. I was part of a 2 year effort to force the University to review their policies, which is documented on the website www.uvavictimsofrape.com. Administrators such as Sisson, now retired, provided strong resistance to any change in policy or attitude. The sanction Sisson refers to in the Hylton case was minimal and should have been reported in your piece to illustrate the how trivial the penalty was - the accused was not to go near the woman he raped. Can that even be considered a sanction? An important point missing from most stories of campus rape is that campus police are not staffed nor trained in how to deal with this type of crime. For example, at UVA a young woman reported that she had been raped to the campus police; 10 days passed before the UVA Detective interviewed the accused. The Detective failed to follow proper protocol and conduct a thorough investigation nor gather forensic evidence - a scenario that occurs over and over not only at UVA, but at other universities throughout the states. Bottom line: Sexual Assault is a CRIME; administrative policies and boards do not provide the means to eliminate this crime from our universities.

[ecuadoriana]

As harsh & as sexist as Agnim sounds, I have to agree somewhat with what he/she is saying. Don't get me wrong- I'm a female. But, as one knows to not go into the lair of a sleeping lion & poke it awake with a stick, women need to realise that when they start drinking at parties with drunken frat boy sport jocks they are playing with fire. By the time a young lady enters college she presumably has enough brains (isn't that why she's attending institutions of higher learning in the first place?)to know right from wrong, stupid choices from intellegent ones, & that young men are basically roaming gonads.

The expression "playing with fire gets you burned" was said for a reason.

This is not excusing or justifying rape- campus or anywhere else. But c'mon girls. Would you leave your car windows open with your wallet, keys, CD player, etc. exposed for theft? Then why would you not consider even tighter precautions for something as precious as your body & your life life? A wallet can be replaced. Your life can not. Take personal responsibility for yourself. Don't leave your safety & emotional well being up to some drunk*** frat boy!

[nelsonre1]

Sexual assault on campus has been going on for many years. I have an ex-wife that was raped in college in the 70's and nothing was done. Everyone just turned their heads. I know three women, all in their 30's that say the same thing. I have a daughter, 21, in college and it scares me to death. To hell with the university/college administrators that protect those that have violated the rights of women. If they don't enforce their policies cut their damned funding!

[agnim]

"I never reported it, because I'd seen how other women were put on trial instead of the men for rape."

What was there to 'report'.
You got lucky.
Your brethren didn't. LOL

Didn't they teach you at home and the church about not drinking alcohol?
When people are inebriated, they tend to lose control and do da wild thang. Ask Mel Gibson. LOL


Plus kissing tend to lead to mating. Did you not have a rite of passage at home?
That is why too many women get into trouble: They don't do rites of passage anymore; and people learn on the fly after costly blunders.

After women have wisely taken the common sense precaution, which every young girl should be taught AT HOME, then we can talk about rape.

An inebriated and kissing female is to a young male as raw meat is to a hungry tiger. You are likely to get devoured. LOL

Teach that to your daughters; so that they don't also have to learn the hard way generation after generation.

[squiz2]

It's so sad that women are afraid to come forward for fear of being traumatized all over again. No matter where, when, why, or how the assault occurs, we should be able to report it without being afraid. We have to stand up for ourselves, no matter the consequences. There is no reason we should have to take this treatment and deal with their behaviors.

[memerider]

I attended a church-affiliated women's college in Missouri, and I was on a date at a local church-affiliated men's college one Saturday night. They had a band outside and I'd had a couple of beers, and we went back into his frat house room and were just talking and we kissed, when suddenly he just started ripping off my pants. I tried to fight him off, and couldn't, so I started screaming.

A frat brother heard me and tried to come in, and it was only then that I realized he'd locked the door. He continued ripping off my clothing, but several frat brothers showed up and knocked the door in and stopped the assault.

I never reported it, because I'd seen how other women were put on trial instead of the men for rape.

[agnim]

Single $ex campuses will keep the students minds more on academics and less on mating.

Corral young males and females together and we are ALWAYS going to get mating.
Whining about it is pointless. LOL

[agnim]

Single *** campus will keep the students minds more on academics and less on mating.

Corral young males and females together and we are ALWAYS going to get mating.
Whining about it is pointless. LOL

[bluestardad]

Where is Mark Foley? Why is he not in Jail? He solicited underage children for fornication. Why has he not been charged? Why is he permitted to roam free after his 30 days in Rehab? Is there a different standard for child predators if they are from Congress? If he were on Dateline NBC he would have been arrested. Please let us know and take action, the American People are watching.

[normal9]

Why does our society hold up jocks as gentlemen? Just like any stranger, girls should be cautious. No assualt is justified. Yet, it's no secret that narcissistic, glorified jocks are rarely gentlemen. So many girls are assaulted and say nothing. Only later do nice men discover their wive's issues. Add to this the rampant drinking and drugs in college, what normal girl would seriously take all those risks?

Colleges are businesses. Of course they want to portray a disneyland of sorts. I would not trust any college administrator to help much. I hope more women speak up.