Sexual Assault at Saint Louis University

April is sexual assault awareness month so I wanted to bring attention to the fact that sexual assault happens right here on our own campus. On September 24 of last year, three women reported 4 men's basketball players for sexual assault. Not soon after, on October 8, a woman not affiliated with the university reported that she was sexually assaulted in an on-campus residence. On October 16, yet another female student was sexually assaulted on campus. These three incidents happened in a three-week span, and needless to say, that doesn't mean that these are the only incidents that occurred. As President Pestello reported in his email sent on October 25, 2017 "the majority of these incidents (90%) on college campuses are never reported" (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000).

Colten Bonk

However, we've seen incidents like this before in the past. SLU was featured all over the news for the rape of a student back in May of this year. Colten Bonk, a freshman in the business school was charged with raping a woman in an on-campus residence. In an article by KMOV, a description was given of the incident: "The victim had been strangled, bitten, and had hair ripped out by Bonk, according to court documents, all the while being trapped in a room without being let out. The victim sustained various bruising on her legs, arms, and face."

While students were able to read about the incident on various news sources, SLU covered their bases by sending out an email in which Pestello assured us that Title IX was involved. Following this email was silence on SLU's part.

SLU should respond to the recent claims with force and compassion for the victims rather than only showing concern with the school's image as a whole. In the emails we've received, there's one thing that seems to stick out like a sore thumb – the specification that one of the three women who reported the sexual assault against the members of the basketball team was not a SLU student. This also had to be noted in the email we received about the woman who was sexually assaulted on October 8th. SLU student or not, they're all women who were sexually assaulted on university property which renders the clarification unnecessary.

The biggest issue with these incidents is the fact that SLU likes to sweep them under the carpet. Students are emailed once a report has been filed, and Pestello may grace us with an email reminding us of the standards the university holds, but that's the extent of things.

In Pestello's email after the incidents last year, he created a list of procedures that the university planned on implementing to expand sexual assault prevention efforts. In these, he included a survey that was to be sent to students about sexual misconduct, the mandatory online sexual awareness training "Haven", and an effort to integrate sexual assault awareness and prevention into course curriculum.

The days of being able to ignore these issues after a formal email has been sent are over. We can only hope that the university's extended prevention efforts will make a difference and create an overall safer campus. With the #MeToo movement and celebrities and public figures coming forward, we must look at the environment around us and improve it.