It must be true. She must be right. She saw all the necessary things for it to happen and thankfully she got out of there before it happened to her. Sadly, I am talking about my daughter who attends a  well  known college in the northeast working on a 5 year combined BA and Master’s Program with two majors already earning a full scholarship and making the Dean’s list every year of the 3 years she has been in college. Yet I feel sad for her.

She has repeatedly expressed how the male population of students are creepy. I know both males and females must work very hard to maintain grades and actually learn the subjects that they hope to be professionals at when they are done learning at colleges. Both genders are stressed, over worked and need sex hopefully in a good relationship with someone you love but good relationships take too much time that they do not have. They are spending all their time striving and succeeding because for most, tuition is way too high.

I saw it myself when I was visiting her one weekend. On a Saturday or Sunday night the girls are walking with shorts on and the highest heels their feet could handle. The boys are already laughing way to loudly and most probably already drunk. They all meet at various clubs, frat houses or parties and then I am not sure what happens. She tells me the guys are in groups of about 5 and they take turns dancing with one girl. Now dancing now is a guy bending a girl over and rubbing his penis into her ass. Before you know it, it is happening to all the girls. These are strangers to her and   if she is also drunk enough and unable to wiggle her way away from them, is being ganged raped somewhere. The colleges rarely follows up on reports of rape. Breakfast is served till 4 in the afternoon because most sleep their addictions off till then on Sunday.

My daughter is terrified of any parties or even private events at college. She just turned 21 and has never had a relationship with a college boy. She works as a supervisor in the cafeteria overseeing breaks for the workers and finds the uneducated hard workers there more interesting and nicer to her than any pompous college boy. She attends school within walking distance of Harvard and MIT. An area of America where some   of America’s finest engineers and business movers and shakers have attended school. I didn’t believe her until I saw the movie and looked at the litigation.

Yes, rape is rampart on college campuses. Some girls are coming out of the shadows having the courage to share what happened to them telling us that schools are failing to protect their students. A new film is taking certain institutions to task. One of the most sensational accusations was to the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner Jamis Winston from Florida State University. He is poised to be a first round pick in the 2015 NFL draft but there is a former student from FSU who is speaking out about her college story of rape in the film called The Hunting Ground. Erica Kinsman reports on what she claims he did to her. According to the movie only 26% of rape reports lead to arrests. Here she is reporting that she was raped by a guy the school is unbelievably proud of on the football field. A place where sports are so big that some coaches get paid more money than the college president. Sports is big money for some colleges.

The film uses first  hand accounts from more than a dozen college students. The film makers are seeking to expose what they say is a shocking epidemic of violence and institutional cover-ups. Universities are protecting their brand.  Erica said that right after she was raped she reported it to the Tallahassee Police Department and an investigation was opened however Jamis was never charged. Willie Meggs a Florida State Attorney said,” There was not sufficient evidence to charge Jamis with a crime.” Erica found her being the target for slandering the campus hero. She dropped out of college to get away from the gravity   against her. Now, 2 years later she is telling her story again in the movie.

No college campus is safe. Women are faced with more questions rather than support. The girls are young and scared and do not want anyone to know how they were sexually violated. They do not want their parents to know. Only 20% of college rapes are reported to the police. The Universities discourage the girls from going to the police. It is the only crime where we blame the victim. Two girls filed a Title 9 Complaint with the Department of Education. Their central argument is the university’s handling of sexual assault allegations violated their civil right to education.

It is starting a national movement. Currently there are 94 universities under Title 9 Investigation for mishandling sexual assault claims. Some girls are going from sexual assault victims to survivalists to now activists. A case shouldn’t be thrown out if a girl doesn’t exactly remember what time the assault happened. Usually they are so drunk, they don’t even realize what is happening till it is too late. The guys are getting away with it and are doing it repeatedly. Ethics used to be assumed. These boys need to learn respect and civility and have lost it all or was never taught and they need to be brought up on charges and taught the most important lesson. Humility.