|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Three separate sexual assaults against female students at Stanford University are alleged to have occurred over the weekend, according to campus officials.
Few details are available about the reported crimes, all of which took place between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. Stanford campus police say two of the sexual assaults happened at the same setting and under circumstances in which the two women were unable to give consent for sexual activity.
Both women reported the sexual assaults on Saturday to a university official, who later reported it to the Stanford Department of Public Safety. The two victims reportedly wished to remain anonymous, and they have not yet spoken with campus police or identified the suspects.
In a separate crime report, a third female student also reported being sexual assaulted by a male colleague at an unspecified place on the same evening. The victim reported the incident to a university official, but she declined to speak with police.
“We are distressed to hear these reports,” Provost Persis Drell said in a statement on Sunday, “and we hope that the victims will come forward to allow both the university and the police to investigate.”
In the MeToo era, there is no shame reporting and prosecuting these perps.
Please report to the police. There are laws to protect you. Universities have reputations they want to protect. That presents a conflict of interest.
I’m not sure I agree with the 2 comments above encouraging reporting of the “perps.” The article doesn’t say anything about the gravity of the situations at all. One could argue that consent was not available if a couple on a date had had a beer or glass of wine each, and then one of them regretted the sex afterwards. Or one of them at the end of the date could have leaned to the other for a kiss and a hug or caress and misjudged the other’s interest.
My examples above are those of everyday occurrences and our law enforcement/university systems should not be flooded with complaints of this type! I was one of the many thousands to be texted by the Stanford Alert system about this. Why should thousands be immediately alerted without also being reassured that these were not trivial cases, but that something truly awful had happened that we should be on the lookout for?
That’s the problem with the definition of terms like “sexual assault” — they conflate a whole range of situations, from the everyday (drunk dating or ambiguous feelings around sexual desires) to the truly terrible.
Let’s hope that alcohol wasn’t involved. Though imbibing is absolutely no excuse for a sexual assault, the drinking factor can seiously effect credibility if the issue is pursued further in a court of law.
Social drinking is a given on college campuses & the consent factor can get shady when the two people involved are inibriated.
Respectfully, I don’t think this article should have been published. There are no accusers, no perpetrators, no evidence, no police reports, no circumstances, no specific allegations, no background. In our society, people have a right to face their accuser, get a fair trial and an impartial jury.
Today the sailor in the iconic photo at the end of WW2 where he kissed a pretty girl died. The picture is on T Shirts, history books,and part of our culture. It was a moment in time, two strangers celebrating the end of the War and then going their separate ways. Today he would have been arrested for sexual assault!
>Today the sailor in the iconic photo at the end of WW2 where he kissed a pretty girl died. The picture is on T Shirts, history books,and part of our culture. It was a moment in time, two strangers celebrating the end of the War and then going their separate ways. Today he would have been arrested for sexual assault!
Depends on the conflict. If it’s a war that nearly all Americans supported & believed in, probably not a problem. From the Viet Nam War onwards…a potential problem.
Alfred Eisenstadt took that photo for Life Magazine.
Sadly the statue commemorating the V-day celebration was vandalized with the words “#MeToo”. I agree with many of the posts above. This is reckless reporting. An accusation doesn’t constitute that a crime has been committed. In the era of #metoo and public outrage at every turn, now more than ever journalistic integrity is needed – ENOUGH of the public lynchings.
journalistic integrity seems to be going down the drain… Can you please stop writing stories that have NO real information or details?
The article clearly states three assaults were “alleged” to have occurred. The use of “alleged” makes clear accusations have been made, but not proven. No one is accused by name.
The value in the story lies in the fact that the alleged incidents are explained to some degree. This blunts any wave of rumor that might sweep over the campus about a stalker targeting women in general or another scenario that could wrongly engender widespread and unnecessary fear.
An additional benefit is the public airing of allegations Stanford has in the past attempted to downplay for public relations reasons. Should someone be formally charged with assault, The Weekly and other news media should aggressively pursue the story both to dispel speculation and shine a light on reprehensible behavior.