Only you can prevent sexual assault

I write this letter as a victim of sexual assault. To every male and female at Duke—rape is real. No matter how much it gets trivialized, joked about, or brushed off, it does happen. I am a member of a selective housing group. One month ago at party monitor training, there were six girls from my selective and perhaps sixty to seventy guys from fraternities or other selective houses. During the sexual assault awareness part of the training, a question was raised about false reports.

You’ve all heard the statistic. One in four. One in four women are sexually assaulted in your lifetime. Your mother, sister, daughter, girlfriend. Pick one.

Here’s the cold, hard reality: Out of the five women with me, I personally knew of at least three who have been assaulted. You do the math. That’s not one in four. That’s one in two. So pick two. Your mother, your sister, your daughter, your girlfriend. Recently, another girl who was there with me was assaulted.

Tell me, how does one in four become two in three? Is it apathy? Disrespect? Disregard? Disbelief? Whatever the reason, it is unacceptable. Duke has a famed “hook-up” culture” that is glorified on a daily basis. Duke also has a reputation as being a drinking school. Why hasn’t anyone drawn a parallel between the two?

To all the anonymous males reading this, I beg you to be aware of your actions and the consequences that follow. No means no. Exceptions are not allowed in cases where alcohol is involved.

To all the anonymous females reading this, I beg you to be aware of your actions and the consequences that follow. Even though this should not be the case, girls must take some initiative in safeguarding themselves against attacks. Don’t drink excessively with people you are not comfortable with. Don’t walk alone at night.

It is up to you. Only you can prevent sexual assault. Please, I beg you. Don’t let the same thing that happened to me happen to you.