(ThySistas.com) While every minute passes, one out of every six women has been the victim of an attempt or completed rape in her lifetime. Considering the substantial number of women across the world this is a ridiculously high number. As of 1998, an estimated 17.7 million women had been victims of rape. Harassment is a much more popular crime, and it is much harder to prove. I’m going to give you all the dirt about these things taking place on college campuses, and even sharing stories of my own.
While I was a Sophomore in college, I had this best friend that for privacy and other discretion’s I will not release her name. On one night she chose to go to a “kick-back” with a friend and I had a bad
feeling, so I decided on not going. A few hours later I got a call from the friend that my best friend was with, she was hysterical over the phone and asked if I could come and get them due to me not having a car at the time, and not being able to find another way I walked there to see what was going on.
That night our priority was to make sure that our friend was taken care of and sobered up, the next morning we talked, and I asked my best friend what decision she was going to make she was either going to report the rape or not and she decided to do so. Upon reporting the rape, days passed, and the boys began sending threats to our phones because they knew what had taken place was indeed wrong. My friends and I were afraid and decided to turn in our phones to authorities so that they could witness the messages and provide us with protection, well days passed, and they still never questioned the guys involved. The campus authorities continued to question my best friend and even myself on various occasions, months came and went still nothing had been done about the issue at hand.
This went on until finally my friend decided that in the best interest of her mental health and stability that she no longer wanted to push the case forward and at that very moment I never heard either party speak on it again. Fast forward to the present day, since September my roommates and I received noise complaints from another resident in our building who’s name I cannot reveal. Every time the campus police or CA comes to our room to check on the complaint they have never once heard noise from our room, it is now November at this point and it is still an ongoing issue. It has come to the point where my roommates and I have begun to fear for our safety, the boy has made it is business to come to our apartment unannounced as well standing outside near our apartment watching us causing us to be afraid.
Even though we have spoken to campus authorities they want us to call it something other than harassment, which is basically what’s been going on for months. While we know terrible things happen on college campuses everyday will we stand up and stop this from becoming the social norm or will we keep sweeping it under the rug to save face of the University. The priority of the university should always be its students and ensuring their safety. If I cannot feel safe on campus with thousands of others then where can I be safe?
Staff Writer; Myra Moore