The Hunting Ground-Alex Moore

 Alex Moore

April 6th, 2016

Period 3

The Hunting Ground Blog Post

1. There is so much sexual assault happening on college/university campuses because universities have huge populations of students, some who are ruthless and vile human beings and others who are young,vulnerable, innocent students. Most sexual assaults happen at parties or in party atmospheres and that is the type of atmosphere most colleges have. Most assaults also take place when alcohol is involved. Assaulters take advantage of these situations and is absolutely awful.The college is supposed to provide safety when a child is at school. Colleges with very tight security might have less attacks. It is up to the University to provide a safe environment for their students to live in.
2. Assaulters can and should be arrested, but more often than not, they are let go. Assaulters who are in prison are sentenced to an average of 11 years, but often only serve half of their term. Universities have the ability to expel their students, but the majority of the time they choose not to because they want their tuition money. The girls in The Hunting Ground are working to file title nine lawsuits against universities because they are not being provided an equal safe learning environment.
3. When students try to enforce their rights while being assaulted, they are completely ignored. The attacker does not care at all what the victim has to say. The victims rights are completely taken from them. When the victim tries to enforce their rights when reporting an assault, they are often ignored. Universities do not want to report that an attack that took place on campus because then it would be public record and then they would lose future applicants because who would want to go to a school where many sexual assaults happen. No person should ever have their rights taken from them like this. Everyone should have the right to feel safe in the environment that they are in and it is a major problem that this is not the case. This needs to be fixed immediately, assaults need to stop.
4. Title IX 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”. What this means is that places that receive funds from the government, like universities and colleges, cannot be denied an equal opportunity at a program based on their gender. This directly relates to sexual assault on college campuses because girls and boys who are sexually assualted on campuses are not being provided an equal safe chance at schooling like others on campus are receiving. Someone who was attacked was not being protected equally and now cannot have an equal college experience. They, in most cases, have to go to school with their attackers. Some live in constant fear of another attack. Because these schools receive funds from the government, everyone should be able to have the same college experience.
5. It’s up to us to change the rape culture. We are the ones who need to stop it and make sure that future generations do not commit this awful offense. For starters, everyone needs to be on the same page that rape cannot be taking place. This is so wrong on so many levels, nothing is worth harming another person in this manner.It is so disgusting and heinous that people do this. Nobody should ever have to be a victim. We need to raise awareness about the issue. If we witness or hear about an assault taking place, we have to stop it. If we do not intervene, then that just creates another innocent victim and the assaulter will get away with it and think that it is ok. We need to stop blaming the victims. No matter what the victim was wearing, how much they had to drink, or how much they seemed interested, it is not the victims fault. They did not welcome the attack in any manner. If we continue to blame the victims, society as a whole will not see that the attackers are to blame. There MUST be better laws and consequences in place for rapists. They CANNOT continue to get away with this. They need to be imprisoned for a long period of time for this offense. If I had any say, it would be for life. Once people start being held accountable, we stop blaming the victims, and we take a stand, we can drastically change the rape epidemic.