Sexual crimes on campus

By Angel Lizardi |Staff Writer|

Male and females are subjects of sexual crime. Between the ages of 18 and 25, one in four women and one in eight men are likely to be victims of sexual crimes.
According to The Center for Public Integrity, fewer than 1 in 20 completed and attempted rapes against college women are reported.
Candy Stallings, Executive Director for the San Bernardino County Sexual Assault Services (CSAS) described in an e-mail why the victims are more inclined to keep quiet about what they have been through as opposed to telling anyone.
“People are afraid of being blamed because of the stigma and societal norms that have been indoctrinated in us,” said Stallings.
The SBAS responds to reports of sexual assault 35 to 40 times a month. This has been a national issue, and many students are starting to take legal action.
According to Aljazeera, current students and alumni at Occidental College, a private university in Los Angeles along with high profile attorney Gloria Allred, threatened the University with a civil lawsuit with accusations that the university had mishandled previous sexual assault and rape cases.
“The person who raped me had been found responsible for raping three women, yet he will be allowed to come back to Oxy in the fall,” said student Carly Mee said in a news conference led by Allred.
“They are simply tired of seeing women being raped and sexually assaulted at the university while the administration shows deliberate indifference,” said Allred.
On Monday Oct. 23, seven current and former students from the University of Connecticut also filed a lawsuit under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, alleging that the university failed to protect against sexual assault on campus and to respond adequately after they reported attacks, according to Aljazeera.
Title IX ensures that institutions that receive federal funding must ensure that both men and women have equal access to education and must be free of sexual discrimination.
Many Universities have admitted that they have failed following regulations to protect students and are unaware on how to follow proper protocol.
Due to universities lack of regulation, recent studies have indicated that many of the offended were not suspended and were allowed to continue attending the University.
According to The Center for Public Integrity, Reed College changed its policies by having the students, faculty, and administration sign a petition for change.
According to national public radio (NPR) and the Center of Public Integrity, only 10-25 percent of male college rapists were expelled.
CSUSB is known as a commuter school however there are students who do live on campus are should be aware of what resources the university has.
CSUSB has a committee known as the sexual assault response team known as the SART, whose mission statement reads, “the team’s mission is to provide a proactive response to campus sexual assault issues and to ensure that everything reasonably possible is and will continue to be done to prevent and respond to sexual assaults on campus.”
The San Bernardino County Sexual Assault Services has a 24/7 hot-line which offers free short and long term counseling.
The number is (909) 227-6901 and their website is sbas.gov.