What You Should Know About Sexual Assault On Campus

According to American Association of University Women (AAUW) one in 5 women are a target of sexual assault. The last thing students and parents want to think about is sexual assault .... but unfortunately it's an issue that has become prevalent among high school and college students – affecting girls and boys alike. To address this sensitive issue before the class of 2016 heads off to college, the SHS PTA organized a panel of experts to speak on the issue on Thursday May 19th. Included were Laura Murphy from Westchester's DA office, Chief of Police Andrew Matturo, Sarah Dougan from Fordham University's undergraduate admissions office and SHS principal Ken Bonamo.

Murphy is the Chief of Sex Crimes and a prosecutor in the Westchester County District Attorney's office. All sexual assault cases that occur on college campuses in the county come through her office. After years of experience at home and in the office Murphy said, "I am more frightened for my 15 year-old son then I was for my two older girls". She explained that she has seen a lot of cases where girls appear and act older than they are so boys believe that are 17 or older and can therefore give legal consent to engage in sexual activity. However if the girl is underage, boys can be prosecuted for sexual assault. Laura also warned that if a girl is drunk or unconscious, she may not remember giving consent and suffer the consequences afterwards. According to Murphy she frequently encounters cases where victims do not remember what happened to them at the time and later want to file for assault. She says these cases are devastating because the victims often have blacked out from drinking and can't remember if they gave consent. Though you need to be 17 years old to give consent, under New York State law you only need to be 16 to be prosecuted as an adult. She also cautioned the audience that even though people think they have deleted photos on Snapchat, Instagram or other social media sites, these photos can be recovered and used as evidence in a lawsuit.

Sarah Dougan, the Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission at Fordham University spoke specifically about sexual assault incidents that occur on college campuses. She pointed out that 100% of sexual assault cases that have occurred at Fordham have involved alcohol. Sexual assault occurs the most during the "Red Zone" period between the beginning of freshmen year through Thanksgiving break. She explained that people typically drink more alcohol than usual during these first few months and so there is more sexual assault on campus. Alcohol serves as "confidence juice" for kids who are thrown into a entirely new atmosphere. Sarah suggested that when underclassmen visit prospective colleges, they ask tough questions about sexual assault and how it is handled.

Scarsdale Chief of Police Andrew Matturo discussed how the Scarsdale Police handles juvenile cases. He has been in the force for over 32 years and served as the detective youth officer. He encouraged those in the audience to feel safe about coming to the police with issues involving sexual assault. When it comes to juvenile cases the police take many factors into consideration including; the nature of the crime, age, criminal record, availability of social services, and recommendations from the victim, and the department focuses on changing an assailants behavior rather than on the punishment. Matturo encouraged the community to utilize the 411 hotline created for anonymous information for people to share or report on any troubling activity.

Last but not least Scarsdale High School Principal Ken Bonamo gave his insights into sexual assault at SHS. He focused on three popular student activities: senior spring beak, road rally, and prom activities and the dangers they pose to students. This year the SHS administration sent an email to parents about spring break to make them aware that not all students go to the Bahamas for spring break and parents should not feel pressured to send their kids to "Baha". In regards to Senior Road Rally, Bonamo received a list of the activities that students participated in last year to gain points. He learned that students who participated were required to photograph sexual and illegal activities. He was concerned that these photos could get released and have personal and legal consequences. Despite his best efforts to end this tradition, the event continues to take place. If it continues this year, he vowed to take further steps to prevent it from happening next year. To keep students at the Prom safe, the school has mandatory supervised busing for students to prom along with a school-run pre-prom event. These two changes have made the prom safer and the administration will continue to look for ways to improve it. Bonamo said that parents have varying ideas about alcohol consumption but it is clear to him that sexual assault at the High School is connected to the use of alcohol.

For more information on this topic visit the links below.

Links for sexual misconduct information/crime victim sites:

www.knowyourix.org
www.notalone.gov
www.ny.gov/programs/enough-enough-combating-sexual-assault-college-campuses
www.victimrights.org
https://www.ovs.ny.gov

Links for digital disrespect/sexting issues/dating violence:

www.athinline.org
www.thatsnotcool.com
www.breakthecycle.org