The Uncomfortable Truth about Sexual Misconduct In Education

From chants of “no means no” to recent trending topics such as the #MeToo campaign, the topic of sexual misconduct in professional spaces has gained international attention. More and more victims have the courage to speak out about their abuse. Even with the star—studded support for the campaign against sexual misconduct, the epidemic continues to lurk in the silence of its victims. Thus, it’s extremely easy to forget how prevalent the crime can be, including in educational institutes.

The Truth about Sexual Misconduct Statistics in Colleges
Students are amongst one of the most vulnerable groups at risk for sexual misconduct. For the purposes of this article, we will refer to colleges in the United States as around 65-70% of SAS seniors attend college in the United States (SAS college counseling office). According to the organization RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), women from ages 18 to 24 are two to three times more susceptible to sexual assault on campus women not attending an educational institution. Studies have shown that approximately 19% of women and 5-6% of men will experience sexual assault on campus.1 However, a 2014 survey shows that out of 11,000 colleges, 91% of of them have reported zero rape incidents.2 It might seem like the survey results are counterintuitive—they are. So what are the reasons for these numbers?

(via The American Association of University Women)

The fear of exposure: From the perspective of many victims, when you report your perpetrator for sexual assault, they are often not the ones persecuted—you are. There is a contact fear of “victim blaming,” or when victims are blamed for leading their perpetrators on, not fighting back, or just outright lying about the incident. This phenomenon often unveils itself especially when there is institutionalized protection of certain repeated offenders. This is exactly what Florida State University student Erica Kinsman found out when she came forward and named Jameis Winston, former famed FSU quarterback, of rape. When she tried to report her rape to a Tallahassee police officer, he told her she might want to think again before pressing charges since “this is a huge football town.” Even though student athletes make up less than 3.3% of college students, they are responsible for 19% of sexual assault reports on campus.3 “All these people were praising him; they were calling me a slut, a whore,” Kinsman tearily recalled Winston supporters at football games holding posters and chanting verses to shame her.

Another institutionalized protection of certain groups of perpetrators shows itself in the form of Greek life. In fact, there are many chapters around the United States that are infamous for having frequent sexual assaults; Frats like SAE (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) are given nicknames like “Sexual Assault Expected.” Fraternity members are 3 times more likely to commit sexual assault than their non-Greek counterparts.4 When an individual reports members in powerful institutions like organized athletics or the Greek system of rape, the consequences extend further than just having his or her name exposed; it leads to social outcasting, public shaming, and even death threats directed towards the alleged victims.

The school administration: While many students’ first response to being sexually assaulted would be to report it to the school, sometimes the school may not react in the desirable way. The associate dean at the University of North Carolina resigned after students revealed that the administration asked them inappropriate questions and suggested the victims were to blame. When the institution that you are suppose to feel safe at turns out to be working against you, it’s scary.

During Andrea Pino’s education at UNC, she was raped twice. When she reported her rape to the university, she said that the administration and their policies had not protected her or other students that reported their sexual assault. Allegedly, an administrator told Pino that her problem was that she was “just lazy.” Given that safety is a huge factor in many prospective student’s decision to apply, it doesn’t come as a surprise that colleges often try to keep sexual assault statistics to a minimum, and sometimes employ methods to not collect their data. These methods sometimes include telling their students not to report to the police, asking questions that suggest the victim to be at fault, or not putting any resources into investigating the incident. In 2016, the average investigation has been opened for 963 days.5

When there are more downsides than benefits to reporting a crime, many won’t do it. It’s not hard to understand why 89% of college women do not report their sexual assault to the police.6


(via Hack College)

The Misconceptions About False Reports
One of the main arguments against many sexual assault reports is that the incident never happened. It seems that every case goes through the typical “he said she said” and that there are, more often than not, accusations against the victim for faking the report. While it seems as if false reports would run rampant when it comes to sexual assault claims, 92% to 98% of reports are found to be factual. However, it’s important to acknowledge that despite false rape accusations only taking up about 2% to 8% of all rape accusations, there are instances in which sexual assault allegations turn out to be false.7 It thus becomes a very blurred area of how people should react and approach sexual misconduct.

At Amherst College, an accused student was denied the right to cross examine his accuser. The college conducted its investigation so fast that key evidence was never even introduced in the trial. The desire to protect victims and accusers on behalf of some colleges, while an admirable effort, has produced procedures that struggle to find out the truth. Organizations like Save Our Sons http://helpsaveoursons.com has increased in numbers to advocate for accused sexual assault perpetrators. On their “If You’ve Been Accused” page, Save Our Sons writes to “never trust your beloved college” and that Title XI specialists “will lie, and try to get you to confess.” It should be acknowledged that when a sexual misconduct case is filed, both the accused and the accuser have their education interrupted.

Despite the site claiming that “hundreds of college males are suffering in silence,” statistics show that more often than not sexual assault victims are telling the truth. It’s worth also reviewing how these victims suffer in silence due to these crimes as well. Victims of sexual assault are found to be more susceptible to PTSD, experience more problems at school, with family and friends, and at their workplaces. The question thus becomes: how can students protect themselves when the epidemic of sexual assault interferes with their ability to have a healthy college education? The answer lies in the Education Amendment of 1972.

(via Boston Mayor's Office of Women's Advancement)

Title What?
Title XI of the Education Amendment in America’s federal law states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”8 Sexual assault, a crime in which more than 90% of adult victims and 82% of juvenile victims are female (according to the Department of Justice), is something that quite obviously interferes with a student’s right to education and subjects them to discrimination from the administration and student body. When a college’s administration does not take action, students do.

Aforementioned UNC student Pino filed a Title XI complaint against her school to the Department of Education when the administration failed to protect her. The issue of sexual assault and education quickly garnered national attention after this complaint. When the movement was just starting around 2015, former President Barack released the names of the 55 schools under investigation by the Department of Education for a Title XI violation. Today, there are more than 304 investigations into more than 223 colleges and universities for issues related to sexual misconduct.9

Within the Walls of High School
While the campaign to end sexual assault on college campuses is gaining momentum, many fail to notice another aspect of education that suffers from sexual assault as well—high school. One in three-to-four girls and one in five-to-seven boys will experience sexual assault before they even graduate from high school. Yet there is no “take back the night” for high school students. Media, parents, teachers, administrators, PTSAs and other high school officials around the world are often blatantly unprepared to deal with sexual misconduct. In the United States, many students remain unaware that Title XI applies to them in high school as well. In a world where 44% of sexual assaults happen before the victim turns 18, it seems clear that college is too late to start educating students about sexual assault.10


(via Survey Monkey)

The Clergy Act of the United States requires colleges funded by the federal government to report their school’s sexual assault statistics, but high schools are not required to do so. It seems as if sexual misconduct in secondary education is receiving the same treatment colleges had been met with decades early. But the media is starting to report college sexual assault in a whole new light and real change is being implemented, high schools have been left behind. The concept of sexism, of slut shaming, and even of sexual assault begins to form in many children’s minds at an early age, and without proper guidance can lead to the toxic environments we see in many educational institutions today. This ranges from being subjected to direct unwanted sexual advances to uncomfortable sexually-charged comments.

The Sexual Misconduct Epidemic in China
In the US, students can recite Title XI in order to fight for their equal rights, but how do students in China use this against their fight? Sexual assault has come to suffuse every level of education in China. Recently, a 62 year-old teacher from Jiangxi was arrested for sexually abusing seven girls. He was accused of molesting seven pupils aged eight or nine, leaving them with sexually transmitted diseases. Despite cases like this, many speculate that such revelations are just the tip of an iceberg. “Behind every reported sexual abuse case, there might be six hidden cases unreported,” says Wang Dawei.

The pervasive problem of sexual abuse within China’s education system stems from structural issues. Many children often do not realize that a sex crime is being committed against them, and don’t mention such actions to their parents.  According to Han Jingjing, director of a legal center in Beijing, 70% of sexual abuse among young people occurs inside schools.11 Many school children in rural areas of China are particularly susceptible to sexual abuse. Often, when their parents are migrant workers who spend prolonged periods of time away from home, they become emotionally isolated.

Furthermore, inadequate sexual education in China breeds a culture of systemic ignorance, where students don’t speak out against such actions simply because they don’t know any better. While the Chinese government has tried to spread awareness with mandatory sex education classes, the implementation of their demands have fallen short—particularly in rural schools that are geographically isolated and have little accountability to the state. Many schools also ask students to read textbooks independently at home instead of teaching the topic in a classroom setting.

Because sexual abuse festers in unchecked environments and preys on ignorance, such harassment remains rampant, even in China’s tertiary levels of education. In an academic environment, where the relationship between students and professors are defined by a huge power asymmetry, there are intense pressures to stay quiet, or risk jeopardizing future career or academic prospects. These problems are accentuated in China when the culture of reporting remains non-existent and accusations do not translate into action. The normalization of silence has become an endemic feature in Chinese culture when confronted with these incidents.

(via South China Morning Post)

Recently, however, such norms have been challenged for the first time. For the very first time, universities around China, inspired by the growing outcry against sexual harassment in the US, have joined together in solidarity in support of a domestic #MeToo movement. Begun by a graduate from BeiHang university, Luo Xixi finally spoke out in a public accusation against Chen Xiaowu, the vice director of the graduate school, for sexual assault after more than a decade of staying quiet. In her bold public statement, read by more than 3 million people, she turned the public’s attention towards the insidious culture of silence against sexual harassment. Following her revelation, Chen was not only fired from the university, but the Ministry of Education released a public statement assuring to combat sexual harassment.

Despite the positive public heralding, it appears that China is reluctant to fully embrace such a movement, both in the public sector and in the government. Many universities continue to ignore the growing repertoire of online petitions. Government censors are deleting open letters. The #MeToo China hashtag has disappeared on social media, along with articles against sexual harassment.

Sexual Misconduct in SAS
In a recent survey conducted by The Echo, 71 SAS high school students were asked to measure their experience with sexual misconduct via online surveys. Out of the people that gave a response, 60.6% were female and 39.4% were male. Out of these students, 22.5% of SAS students indicated that they have personally experienced sexual misconduct. This troubling statistics corresponds with the Justice Department’s findings that 20% of 14 to 17 year olds have experienced of sexual assault. Despite many feeling as if they live in a place that has no room for sexual misconduct, this is clearly the contrary. In fact, 60.6% of students claimed that they know someone who has experienced sexual misconduct, which is 26% more than the students who said they didn’t know anyone.

(via Survey Monkey)

Given the widespread nature of sexual misconduct, it is essential that students understand precautionary measures or how to report an act of sexual misconduct. Yet in the survey, only 44% students said they were sure of how to act in the aftermath of a sexual misconduct incident. Instead, 50% of students claimed they were not entirely sure how to act and 5.7% said they didn’t know how act at all. SAS high school counselor Tracie Dotson said that students should “immediately report it” if they experience any sort of sexual misconduct in relations to the school. Ideally, students should report their assault to “a trusting adult” or “any school official, preferably an administrator or counselor.” Once the student reports the crime, “the school will meet with administrators, and the crisis response team.” Together, these school officials will “get together to evaluate situations that arise when it involves student safety.” For victims personally, the school claims that they “have vetted outside sources for counseling, as well as our crisis response team, administrators and counselors, as well as [the] school psychologist” to assist students recovering from an incident of sexual misconduct.

(via Survey Monkey)

However, it still remains that 47.89% of SAS students aren’t sure if they would report their sexual misconduct experiences with the school and 14.1% students would not report it to the school at all, even if the experience was in relations to the school. In a school where it seems that students are feeling the painful reality of sexual misconduct, there seems to be a lack of preparation and trust in the school.

(via Survey Monkey)

Dealing with the crime after it has happened is already not enough, and there had been outcry for prevention programs in schools all around the world, SAS included. Currently SAS does not have any programs that will engage students in conversations about sexual misconduct, except for the sex education program early on in high school. Dotson claims that “counselors are working to develop a curriculum” surrounding the issue of sexual assault. “[This curriculum] would look like counseling cores, in class discussions, and meetings with teachers and the faculty,” says Dotson. The saying goes that “ignorance is bliss,” but when more students in the early stages of their education are exposed to sexual misconduct and will be exposed to more in the future, when more than half of these students wouldn’t know exactly what to do if such an event happened to them: ignorance is not something that can be afforded.

Our society’s attitude towards sexual misconduct can take years to shift, but it is necessary. When students are being sexually assaulted at such a young age, it has detrimental effects on their mental health being and their education. It takes great effort to start conversations about sexual assault and expanding our understanding on sexual misconduct, but there are options at our disposal to do so. Education is a crucial part in society’s gradual change in understanding towards any topic. Rather by censoring talks on sexual assault for fear of inappropriate topics, it’s time to start utilizing our education to discuss how sexual misconduct affects our society, our students, and ourselves.

Cowritten by Amy Liu and Evan Shan

Citations and references:
1 https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
2 https://www.aauw.org/article/clery-act-data-analysis/
3 http://time.com/3689368/campus-sexual-assault-athletes-yes-means-yes/
4 http://endrapeoncampus.org/greek-life/
5 https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-campus-rape-policy/538974/
6 https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence
7 https://www.vox.com/2015/6/1/8687479/lie-rape-statistics
8 https://www.knowyourix.org/college-resources/title-ix/
9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/18/at-first-55-schools-faced-sexual-violence-investigations-now-the-list-has-quadrupled/?utm_term=.d389b0c8efa5
10 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/what-should-high-schools-do-44-percent-of-sexual-assaults-happen-before-college_b_7090492.html
11 https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bbc-the-abuse-of-chinas-left-behind-children.270771/

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence
https://www.knowyourix.org/issues/statistics/
http://endrapeoncampus.org/greek-life/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/sports/football/jameis-winston-erica-kinsman-lawsuit.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/02/19/erica-kinsman-who-accused-jameis-winston-of-rape-tells-her-story-in-new-documentary-the-hunting-ground/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-pino/more-that-a-teal-ribbon_b_3165293.html
http://helpsaveoursons.com
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens
https://www.economist.com/news/china/21735078-communist-party-nervous-metoo-movement-arrives-peoples-republic
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-23628090
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bbc-the-abuse-of-chinas-left-behind-children.270771/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/18/at-first-55-schools-faced-sexual-violence-investigations-now-the-list-has-quadrupled/?utm_term=.d389b0c8efa5
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/what-should-high-schools-do-44-percent-of-sexual-assaults-happen-before-college_b_7090492.html
https://www.vox.com/2015/6/1/8687479/lie-rape-statistics
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-campus-rape-policy/538974/
https://www.aauw.org/article/clery-act-data-analysis/
http://time.com/3689368/campus-sexual-assault-athletes-yes-means-yes/


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The Echo: The Uncomfortable Truth about Sexual Misconduct In Education
The Uncomfortable Truth about Sexual Misconduct In Education
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The Echo
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