A hot button topic the past few years has been that of sexual assaults on college campuses across America. As one of the most underreported crimes, people are working towards a more supportive environment for victims to come to. One of those people is Campus Police Chief Gunther Doerr.
Before coming to Appalachian State University, Doerr worked in Chicago as a Director of Public Safety, after spending 22 years as an Army police officer. Doerr found App while looking for a campus community, far from the hustle and bustle he experienced in Chicago.
During his 16 years at Appalachian, Doerr has learned that there are many barriers in the field of sexual misconduct. These barriers give sexual misconduct many shades of grey as opposed to being a black and white type of crime.
One of the first challenges to any kind of sexual assault case is the differences between federal and state laws. North Carolina law states sexual assault is forced sexual intercourse on a woman, by a man. All other sexual misconducts, including nonconsensual sex or assault on a man by a woman, are only sexual battery, which is a misdemeanor. Federal laws state that sexual assault can range from inappropriate language or touching to rape.
With the federal disclosure laws, everything that is in a crime alert is to be reported as a sexual assault, whereas according to our state laws, it is usually a charge of only sexual battery due to the differences between what qualifies.
“Acquaintance assaults,” are the majority of the sexual misconduct cases that are reported to the police and typically involve the use of drugs or alcohol. These cases usually tend to result in misunderstanding of what the relationship between the two was intended to be. When looking at a case like this, there is not much more evidence than what each party says happened.
When a student is reported for sexual assault to the police, the first thing the police check is whether the victim wishes to press charges. Students who do not want to press charges usually want to avoid embarrassment or just want to put the incident behind them.
If the student chooses to press charges, the assailant is arrested and turned over to Boone Police or the Sheriff’s office depending on whether the crime was committed on campus, in Boone or in Watauga County.
If the victim does not press criminal charges, the assailant may still be sent to the Office of Student Conduct to be dealt with in an administrative manner. Acts like sexual harassment and non-consensual sexual contact have minimum sanction of disciplinary probation. Disciplinary probation meaning formal conditions are set on a student’s continued attendance. More serious acts, such as non-consensual sexual intercourse have a minimum sanction of eight semesters of suspension.
Once arrested, the arrest record is sent over to the university police and then passed along to the Office of Student Conduct. Unlike a criminal trial, which can take up to two years to take place, Student Conduct is a much quicker process.
With sexual misconduct, there is usually a range of pre-set sanctions for the type of offense that the student committed. If the student is found to be responsible, the maximum punishment can be suspension or expulsion from the university in cases of sexual battery or assault.
Conduct’s punishments may not always be set in stone. If a student is found responsible before his court date and thus suspended, it may change when his court date rolls around. If a student is found not guilty in court he may be brought back into the school even though he had been previously found responsible by the office of student conduct.
In the criminal courts, sexual assault can only be tried if there is proof of force. Sexual assault is a felony offense. Sexual battery is a catch-all phrase for any other type of sexual misconduct . However, sexual battery is only a misdemeanor, unless the student was assaulted by a professor, coach, etc. This is because the student was assaulted by an authority figure who has abuse their power. This charge is a felony.
In Chief Doerr’s 16 years at Appalachian, he has only seen one case actually go to trial. This case was a “serious assault.” Since sexual assault is difficult to process criminally, the accused was found not guilty even though Doerr thought there was compelling evidence on the contrary.
Doerr said that the university at least, is moving in the correct direction for the future of sexual assault victims. With all of the resources available, Doerr said that at least on Appalachian’s campus, we, as a community, are “turning a corner of underreporting,” with a more supportive environment for victims.
On the state level, Doerr is unsure that we will change our statutes to match the federal standard that has been set. However, if each campus moves along like ours, Doerr said that we may be moving towards change on a state and national level where women can come forward more freely and have resources like those found through Appalachian.
These resources include our counseling center, student conduct and the willingness of the university to work with you in case you are currently in direct contact with your assailant. This would include allowing you to move classes or dorms if either of those are shared with the student who harmed you.