As an Ohio University student and a concerned American citizen, I urge the administration, OUPD, and Athens PD to increase security to prevent sexual assault and to provide safer streets. In addition, the Ohio University student body needs to deepen its understanding of the issues surrounding sexual assault.
When considering safety, some female students are considering how to “dress” a certain way or make sure they “act” a certain way in order to prevent being raped. Nobody asks to be raped; no man, no woman, should ever have to modify his or her attire because of fear of being assaulted.
In 2015, Ohio University had 30 reported rapes, not including the ones who are too scared to say anything because they are afraid of being harassed because they got “too drunk” or dressed “too slutty.”
Students on this campus should practice sexual restraint. If a woman cannot physically respond, or say the word yes, then men need to back off. Women do not “ask for it,” based on how drunk they get or how well they are dressed. Females should also take into consideration that men are sexually assaulted as well. Too many people focus on how much that person had to drink, or what that person was wearing, rather than the fact that he or she was sexually assaulted. The victim should not be blamed.
In order to take a stand and help reduce the sexual assault numbers, we need to take a stand as a community. To reduce the amount of crimes on campus, there needs to be better bystander policies, as well as a class that teaches us fully on how to help and intervene with sexual assaults waiting to happen.
Providing a free class to students that will help them understand the importance of stopping a friend from drinking jungle juice, or stopping your drunk buddy from going upstairs with a girl he just met, may help reports of sexual assault go down.
Nobody asks to be sexually assaulted. Law enforcement officials need to be vigilant, and the student body must stand together as a community. We must stop stereotypes, stop objectifying and labeling females as sluts and teach students to control themselves. Most importantly, we must teach everyone to stop something that does not feel right. In doing so, we will be learning the most important lesson in college—how to be human.
Dakota Culver is a freshman studying criminology/sociality and psychology at Ohio University.
