**Content Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault.**
In light of recent events, I’d like to say that my heart goes out to all of the victims of rape and sexual assault at Kenyon, and all those who feel like the Title IX policies are inadequate to truly help and support victims. The fact that some students don’t feel safe at Kenyon because of the way their Title IX cases were handled is heartbreaking, and the emotional and physical aftermath that a survivor feels must be incredibly hard to handle. When I learned about the recently publicized Title IX case at Kenyon, I was appalled. No one should have to go through that much pain, and turn away from a place that they’ve grown up in and learned to love because it let them down.
It’s hard to face the reality that Kenyon has let its community down. Survivors of sexual assault and rape, their families, and our peers are all affected by this. The college has been stung, and it’s a pretty severe sting. But, like any sting, it is curable. It will be hard at first—very hard—but we as a community can certainly get things done. We as a community can come together to ensure that our friends and classmates never have to feel afraid walking around in their dorm, or have to see their abusers when they walk in Pierce. It starts with us, and we can certainly implement the change that Kenyon obviously needs.
First of all, I need to say that the way in which we approach sexual assault is wrong. We sometimes give victims the tools they need, but society at large never tells the perpetrators not to continue their acts. That’s badly handled. It’s like telling everyone how they should handle their house being robbed, but simultaneously not telling the robbers that they shouldn’t rob because of moral and legal reasons. Come on. We can do better. Kenyon needs to start having more productive conversations with the student body about the effects of assault, to encourage students to stop acts of aggression and violence from happening instead of being on the defense and learning how to prevent them.
Secondly, the fact that some people walk away without any punishment from these cases is horrible, unfair, and also poorly handled. I personally know of one case of assault where the assaulter walked away with no punishment at all. If a person you know is stealing people’s wallets, you don’t walk away. You reprimand that person, or they’ll continue to steal. Same goes for cases of sexual assault. Reprimand those people. They’ve broken the law, and they’ve made others’ lives a lot harder.
Thirdly, there is something good that is coming out of this: conversation. We as a community clearly need to talk about this. At least the unfortunate turn of events have started a good conversation here at Kenyon—it’s started a conversation about what we need to do to help. And that is a good thing. We don’t have a long way to go to get this solved, if you think about it. We have the resources to implement change, and we as a community should start now. If we come together and truly dedicate ourselves to making change happen, we can do it.
If there are any other solutions that you can think of, or any ways to help, please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments. Policy change has waited too long.