WATCH: Colleges Victim Blame, Turn A Blind Eye To Sexual Assault

Sexual assault on campus is a huge problem. The Department of Justice avers that 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted some time in college. What are colleges doing to combat this? Sometimes, not nearly enough.

Recent efforts by the Obama administration to toughen sexual assault laws on campus have brought to light just how lax university strictures on this issue oftentimes are.

In the Today Show clip below, Maggie Hurt, a student at Wake Forest University, and Margo Jondo, a student at Indiana University, describe their experiences as victims of sexual assault on campus. Their stories shed light on the way sexual assault on campus is often glossed over, and the victim is left feeling shamed and disempowered.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[holligolightly1]

09:10 PM on 05/20/2011

Here’s the version that was in the police report Maggi Filed

According to the police documents, Hurt “ran into” Teague in the hallway of their Miami hotel at about 3:30 a.m. on March 21 – hours after the Demon Deacons were upset by Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Clark later joined the conversation, according to the report. She said the players asked her about performing oral sex, and she accepted Teague’s invitation to go to a hotel room.

When they arrived, according to the documents, she and Clark entered the bathroom and Teague closed the door behind them. She said Clark lowered his pants and asked her to touch his genitals; after she declined, he asked her to perform oral sex, and she said she complied because she was afraid not to.

In Clark’s statement to investigators, he said she removed his pants and the oral sex was consensual.

After a few days she told a friend who insisted she report the incident to campus police, according to the documents. Records indicate the incident was reported to police in North Carolina on April 8 of that year by WFU police, and the case was transferred to Miami police because that’s where the incident took place.

[PeaceLove69]

06:01 PM on 05/20/2011

If I were the two guys accused by Hunt, I would sue the Today and her for defamation.

[nmaddog7]

03:07 PM on 05/20/2011

When these weapons go the way of the PC and become wallet sized, every single woman should carry one, sort of like a ID card- http://bit.ly/jXoIGo - This gun emits "It is a very loud and painful screeching type sound. A good example of the type of irritation it produces is to say its like somebody scratching their fingernails on a chalkboard "
This is a humane way to solve to problem of rape, no victims, no prisons glutted with rapists. Every single women,no matter how desirable,scanttly clad,or burka wearing should be required to carry the small credit card ones made in the future at all times, because if the sick rapists figured out only the pretty women carried them our more plain Jane house wives would suddenly have to bear all the fear our most beautiful city dwelling women now have to deal with.

[JStading]

01:13 PM on 05/20/2011

If we want to see a reduction of sexual assaults, we need to teach people to have basic situational awareness.  The reason I don't walk around with my iPod blasting in both of my ears is the same reason I don't get into cars with strangers, get black out drunk, or surround myself with people I don't know.  Essentially, I take responsibility for my safety.  For some reason, it's taboo to tell women that they should be doing the same.  Don't dress in ways that will attract unwanted attention (e.g. I don't walk around the ghetto in a three piece suit with gold jewelery at 3 am, why would you walk around nearly naked at the same time), stay with people you trust, don't leave drinks unattended, and don't go into private rooms with people you don't know.

By the time we are at the point where "self-defense" classes are needed, it's probably too late unless you're armed.  It's best to avoid the situation outright.

[clutzzygrl24]

04:59 AM on 05/21/2011

I understand your comment and it has good reason, but we need to put more of our efforts in educating boys about the issue. To them it's not their issue because they are generally not the victim. We need to teach them it does not matter if a girl runs down the street naked, that does not give you the right to have sex with her. She needs to verbally say YES ( and not be coursed into saying yes out of fear!) I got the talk about being safe and protecting myself before I went off to college and multiple times overs when having conversations with my mother. So did all my friends who are girls I asked my guy friends if they got any talk about sexual assault. The answer was always NO. Also rape/sexual assault is a power and dominance thing its not sexual. So a girl wearing skimpy cloths is not the real problem its teaching our men that woman are equal to them and not subordinates. In an equal world woman would not have to live in fear, pay more cash to protect themselves, travel in packs or "avoid the situation." Yes I know a perfect world is a pipe dream, but we can still work hard to lesson the problem and help woman and educate both men and woman.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

10:02 AM on 05/20/2011

1 in 4 girls in Kenya are sexually assaulted , 1 in 5 girls on our college campuses are sexually assualted. Its time to stop protecting the athletes and privileged.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

09:57 AM on 05/20/2011

See the Real Police first, go to a hospital they will get them for you.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

09:56 AM on 05/20/2011

The Campus Police is NOT the Police Department. DO NOT GO TO THE CAMPUS POLICE.
Be careful, and if they don't respond do not accept it. Go to Planned Parenthood and get some some advice. Find a Lawer, someone will help.

[morefreethings]

08:36 AM on 05/20/2011

couldnt watch the video, but was there evidence in these cases? I have fought hard at my old uni for men's rights in dealing with sexual assault cases. The old policy was simply, go by the woman's story. Which many times was just to save her reputation...

[sugarpops]

07:07 PM on 05/20/2011

Why couldn't watch the video?
The rest of your post is a crock. I was a residence hall director at one of the Big 8 universities and the campus police did nothing when a woman tried to file reports of rape or sexual assult. It was unwritten policy to cover up the incident because it would reflect poorly on the university.

[morefreethings]

07:56 PM on 05/20/2011

it was blocked on my comp...

well im glad your university was fair, ours was not. Unless there is evidence, there is no case.

[Sol76]

08:25 AM on 05/20/2011

Media plays a part in this. In films and television, schools and universities are depicted not so much as places of learning but as places to socialise and meet people to fall in love with and/or have sex. This creates in part a sense of entitlement that is in the mind of rapists justification for their actions.

[Christie Nichole Feigal]

07:53 AM on 05/20/2011

This is disgusting. These poor women!!

[HRN-STL]

04:58 AM on 05/20/2011

With respect to the Wake Forest student the school's investigation found the men innocent and the State of North Carolina did not find enough evidence to warrant charges. So two innocent men should be locked up despite there being little to no evidence just because one woman claims something.

[holligolightly1]

08:35 PM on 05/20/2011

THANK YOU!

[bethagrace]

07:20 PM on 05/23/2011

The universities shouldn't be the ones investigating because they have a stake in this. It should be the real police.

[sophia288]

02:23 AM on 05/20/2011

The thing that bothers me about universities is that they do NOT notify the news media if a woman is assaulted.

I think it is mostly that the schools do not want to lose students (parents might pull them out if there is a story in the newspaper about assaults).

[squiems]

04:41 PM on 05/20/2011

according to federal law, a school must publicly declare when a sexual assault has been committed or accused of being committed.

[sophia288]

07:03 PM on 05/21/2011

There was, I think, some sort of notice throughout the campus (perhaps posters with the man's description . . . again, I do not remember the whole story).

This happened around 10 years ago and I do not remember details about this girl's experience.

The girl was not physically raped, she was held in the room, threatened, and then he let her go. The girl's clothes were kept by the university police (she left the University police with a different set of clothes) because of his spots on her clothes.

There is much more to this long story . . . but here is a portion of what the police told the girl: There was a man that was breaking into women's dorms and watching the women sleep and he did his thing while they were sleeping.
They thought that there was a POSSIBILITY that this was the guy (the one who assaulted the girl).
(WHY DIDN'T THE MEDIA TELL THE PUBLIC ABOUT THIS mysterious guy around campus??????)

Personally, I think that University towns want to protect their universities.

[NikitaAhn]

01:47 AM on 05/20/2011

For all the people commenting about how "unbelievable" that 1-in-6 stat is, consider this. From RAINN: "Here's the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey -- the country's largest and most reliable crime study -- there were 248,300 sexual assaults in 2007 (the most recent data available).

There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year. That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year. So, 31,536,000 divided by 248,300 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 127 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes."

Considering that someone is raped every two minutes, you really find it that hard to believe? Start asking all the women in your life if they've had any experience with sexual assault and see how many of them have been victims, then maybe you'll believe it.

[texxtin]

01:11 AM on 05/20/2011

I had a problem like this at college and I called campus police. I was sorry. I should have called the 'real" police. That's my advice.

[PeaceLove69]

12:18 AM on 05/20/2011

Something pretty significant is left out of the story - sometimes the accused is innocent. I know that young women occassionally make false claims so you can't believe that the University is doing anything wrong. I remember one year at "ake back te night" any of the girls were recounting storis of drunken late night hooks which they regretted the next day. A woman may consider that rape but I found it telling that these incidents were never adjudicated. With a story that thin it's hard to prove rape. Saying "I felt pressured" isn't enough IMO.