This article contains sensitive material covering sexual assault, read at your own discretion.
Community is one of the top values that the University of Pittsburgh lists on their website. Why then, in the wake of multiple sexual assaults on campus, has the university done so little to enhance the safety of its community of students? Searching for information about the cases and what the university has done takes you back to October. What you’ll find is multiple sources highlighting the protest held by students over the assault that happened in the Cathedral stairwell and the petition they created for increased cameras and security – which, by the way, got taken down. What you won’t find is more than empty promises from Pitt saying they hear us and are looking into options.
It’s been four months since those articles came out and what are we left with? Well, when you think about it, nothing.
Just this past December, Dior Johnson, a freshman basketball player for Pitt, was arrested on multiple charges of domestic violence, and was allowed to return to practice. Though sexual assault is different from domestic abuse, a quick google search will tell you that the two are intrinsically linked. The patterns of behavior that perpetrators of domestic abuse and sexual assault follow are often similar, neither of which should be acceptable on Pitt’s campus. Allowing Johnson, who got his charge dropped from a felony to a misdemeanor in a plea deal, to not only return to basketball practice but to the university in general is a huge slap in the face to everything for which the student body has been calling. Not only that, but head coach Jeff Chapel has said that he thinks Johnson’s return to the university and team will help him move past these legal troubles. Legal troubles?! Are you serious? That’s the concern here? How about we focus on the fact that he was arrested for assault and strangulation and left the victim covered in bruises and with a concussion. Why don’t we start working through that issue first, off campus.
It’s extremely upsetting not only to me, but I’m sure the victim and hundreds of other students, to see Johnson get practically just a slap on the wrist after all this. What this shows is that the University of Pittsburgh is more concerned with winning the ACC than the wellbeing of their students. Last year at the peak of Black Lives Matter, Pitt created a required anti-racism course to educate students. That’s the kind of response this issue should be receiving as well. Not only to educate on sexual assault prevention, but also to establish what resources are available to students. I personally have no idea how to find or contact campus police (since I rarely ever see them), I don’t know what kind of counseling they have for victims (if any), and now I’m not sure that any of that would matter as it seems the perpetrator would be allowed to return to campus anyway.
It’s ironic that Pitt tries to preach about the sense of community it creates for its student body within the university. They try to make it seem as though you won’t just be a face in a crowd in a college with nearly 20,000 undergraduate students. However, their response to these cases just goes to show that you and your safety were never the top priority to them.
If you or a someone you know need help, please reach out to the National Domestic Abuse Hotline – 1(800)799-7233 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline – 1(800)656-4673.