You hear about it on the news. You see stories on Facebook. You hear about it from other people who know people it’s happened to. But you never think it’ll happen to you or that you’ll be affected. I never thought it would affect me until two weeks ago when I received a text message on a Sunday morning saying a sexual assault had occurred in my dorm. I didn’t really know what to do. I knew it hadn’t happened to anyone on my floor or to any of my friends. I knew I was a little nervous to go back to my dorm that night because they hadn’t arrested anyone. But I trust security at Warren and I didn’t know who it had happened to. Its true what they say that you don’t want to get involved in something and it doesn’t really effect you until it happens to you or someone you love.
And then it did.
One of my best friends was a victim of sexual harassment on an extreme level. A few years ago Janelle had made a naïve decision about boys and the internet and sending pictures. It’s a decision she regrets and she’s learned from it. Unfortunately, some people have no problem terrorizing people and ruining their lives. For some gross reason one of the guys kept the pictures and managed to find her on Facebook and Instagram. He messaged her from multiple accounts and was threatening to publish the content unless she got on video chat with him and took her clothes off. As you can imagine Janelle was terrified and so was I. This is one of my best friends getting cyber harassed and there was nothing I could do to protect her. She went to the police but there was only so much they could do because it was over the internet. We went to SARP (sexual assault response and prevention) and they were as helpful as they could be but, again, because its over the internet there isn’t much anyone can do. It was a hectic few days full of a lot of anxiety about what he would do and what Janelle would do. We got lucky in that he finally decided to give up after Janelle changed all of her privacy settings and ignored him.
But not everyone is lucky like that. I’m sharing this story with her permission and encouragement as a reminder to please be careful. Be careful what you do on the internet. Please be careful who you trust. And please seek help if you need it. Whether its harassment over the internet, in person, or sexual assault please seek help. We have SARP, the police, or even just your friends to talk to. There are always steps to protect you and prevent it from going farther. So please be careful and if something does happen get help.