Yesterday evening, I was completing my homework in silence when I kept seeing my Odyssey group chat going off. I was becoming annoyed by my phone buzzing and flashing every 5 seconds, so I decided to see what my fellow community members were talking about. Before my eyes were two links to two separate articles that were posted on the Huffington Post, and I clicked on one of the article links.

When I paused my work to read the article, I was astonished. Why? I don't know...Maybe because a student from the University of Richmond was raped by a fellow student-athlete and never got justice for her case EVEN THOUGH the investigators AND the University of Richmond had physical proof (AND a confession) that the incident did occur and that the student-athlete was at fault as the aggressor of this situation.

Let me tell all of you something and this goes for both men and women: "STOP being monsters." Just because a very attractive-looking person dances with you at a party, that does not mean they want you. Someone saying "hello" to you does not give you the right to harass them for their number. Just because you and some this person had sex doesn't mean that she wants to have sex with you again. So on that note, STOP taking advantage of people.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), one in 5 female college students are/will be raped in some point in their lives as opposed to male college students, which would be at a small, but still prevalent, ratio of 1 in 16. That is TWENTY PERCENT of the female population at any given collegiate institution! The NSVRC also shows that out of all of the sexual assault victims, only 10% of the victims will report the incident to authorities. And even though men are less likely to get raped in some point of their lives, it has happened and it can still happen. Sexual assault is a HUGE issue in today's social world, and no matter who the victim is, this is an issue that we need to tackle.

What is wrong with these statistics? EVERYTHING. Because some sick (excuse my French) bastards are out here taking advantage of prople and sexually assaulting them, the victims will have severe emotional and mental issues because of the built-up fear, anger, guilt, and shame that they have towards the incident as well as themselves. This foolishness needs to end NOW. We need to stand up and stand together for rape/sexual assault victims not just in these United States, but all around the world. What if this happened to your mother? Your brother/sister? Another loved one? Your best friend? A co-worker? Your roommate? What would you do/say then?

IT ENDS HERE. IT ENDS NOW. IT ENDS...WITH US.

Best wishes,

Carrington B.

(For more information about sexual violence statistics, please visit: http://www.nsvrc.org/saam/campus-resource-list. If you are a victim of sexual assault, please talk with the Director of Counseling Services at your college/university [HS: please talk to a guidance counselor] or call the sexual assault hotline at (800) 656-4673. You're not in this alone, and what happened to you is not your fault.)