It’s the period of time when students usually arrive on their college campus for the start of the fall semester (usually in August) through Thanksgiving break. This is usually when many students are going to parties, gatherings, and other social events to celebrate their return to campus and to become social.

In addition, more than 50% of campus sexual assaults happen during this period of time, mostly between 12:00 midnight to 6:00am in the morning and more frequently on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

GBV encompasses verbal and physical actions, sexual harassment and assault, rape and other forms of abusive behavior.

A Few Disturbing Facts:

• Women ages 18-24 in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to experience GBV.
• 81% Women report experiencing sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime
• Rape survivors are the largest group of persons with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

One of the main factors of GBV during the Red Zone is due to the increase of social gatherings during this time, where individuals may increase the use of drugs and alcohol.

Though there is a relationship to alcohol and GBV, it is important to make clear that sexual assault or any other form of GBV is NEVER the fault of the victim. NO matter if a person was engaging in the use of alcohol or drugs, if they had sex with the perpetrator before, what they were wearing, how they were dancing, or anything else! Period.

Bottom Line: Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is NEVER the fault of the victim and ALWAYS the fault of the person who forces themselves onto the victim without that person’s express consent.

Other factors may include:

• Students are away from home, maybe for the first time.
• They may be inexperienced with using alcohol responsibly.
• They may lack a cohesive and reliable group of friends who are committed to looking out for each other.

GBV in colleges and universities mainly affects newer students that arrive on campus as they are trying to formulate new friendships and trying to find a sense of belonging and community.

These individuals are adjusting to living on campus for the first time on their own, away from their original comfort zones. However, GBV affects everyone whether directly or indirectly, and women, people of color, LGBTQ+ and low-income students are disproportionately impacted.

The affected victims almost always suffer detrimental effects to their mental health, financial status, academic standing as well as every aspect of their future!

Unfortunately, GBV incidents and reports are significantly underreported on all college campuses across the U.S., especially by those students who are female, people of color, LGBTQ+ and low-income.

GBV ranges from inappropriate verbal and physical actions, sexual harassment and rape. Again, it is important to make it clear that any sort of microaggressions, unwanted touching or any other form of GBV is NEVER the fault of the victim.  ALWAYS REMEMBER that you are not alone, and you have the right to get help!

If any forms of GBV occurs on your college campus or the person who harmed you was a student, faculty, etc. then you have the right to report it to your school authorities for additional support.

Under Title IX, the college is required to assist you with the violations that you have experienced and become victim to. U.S. Colleges and Universities that receive federal funding should provide you with several options of support that may include: counseling, changing living arrangements, adjusting class schedules, etc.

Under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972:

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

A brief summary: Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. This important law has been given a broad scope that includes sexual harassment, sexual violence and rape. Supposedly, under Title IX, colleges and universities are legally required to respond and resolve these toxic learning environments.

 In theory, these higher institutions of education that fail to remedy these Title IX violations are to be in risk of losing its federal funding. However, this has NEVER been the case.

Under Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964:

Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance. Programs that receive Federal funds cannot distinguish among individuals on the basis of race, color or national origin, either directly or indirectly, in the types, quantity, quality or timeliness of program services, aids or benefits that they provide or the manner in which they provide them. This prohibition applies to intentional discrimination as well as to procedures, criteria or methods of administration that appear neutral but have a discriminatory effect on individuals because of their race, color, or national origin.

Students, parents and so many others have accused U.S. College Campuses of continuing to violate both Title IX and Title VI by consistently ignoring the reporting from victims and intentionally sweeping these victims’ legitimate evidence and allegations under the rug.

Why is this?

Actually, this is quite a simple answer: These U.S. Colleges would rather protect their school’s reputation and money over their students’ mental health, physical well-being and bright futures!

Two Important Federal Laws that these U.S. Colleges are NOT abiding are:

• Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. The purpose of enacting Title IX was to ensure that everyone, regardless of sex, would enjoy a discrimination-free educational experience.

• Title VI prohibits discrimination in educational institutions on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funds or other federal financial assistance.

Victims of GBV are NOT being protected NOR receiving any sort of justice which has resulted in suffering detrimental effects to their mental health, financial status, academic standing as well as every aspect of their futures!

*Some disturbing findings that were compiled and researched from data on the Office for Civil Rights (Department of Education) website as well as research findings that were collected from higher educational institution data include:

The literature shows that the process of reporting discrimination is often unreliable: “For instance, from 2018 to 2020, 2,913 incidents were reported to the Title IX office…Few reports resulted in formal complaints (15.6%) and completed investigations (9%)” (Webermann & Holland, 2022). This crucial exploration of the aftermath of discrimination digs into colleges and universities doing everything in their power to avoid providing justice and assistance to victims facing inequity. With universities subduing cases of discrimination, and the government’s inaction, many consequential mental health, financial, and detrimental academic effects are falling on these victims. Forming an understanding of how Title IX and Title VI have operated thus far, and the resulting effects, is the first step in rectifying an unjust system.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education that is primarily focused on enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting schools from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or membership in patriotic youth organizations.

The agency can be found in twelve regional offices and in its Washington, D.C. headquarters:

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for ensuring compliance by schools that are public entities or recipients of federal education funds with several federal civil rights laws, including:

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. The purpose of enacting Title IX was to ensure that everyone, regardless of sex, would enjoy a discrimination-free educational experience.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VI prohibits discrimination in educational institutions on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funds or other federal financial assistance.

Unfortunately, based on research, evidence, facts and so many peoples’ stories and personal experiences, the answer is NO.

Here is an Excellent Article to Illustrate this:

“What happens if a school doesn’t comply with Title IX? Not a whole lot.” by: Rachel Axon, USA TODAY

-Enforcement of the federal gender-equity law is essentially toothless, mired in red tape and delays as aggrieved students wait years for relief…

Schools accused of violating Title IX – which bans sex discrimination across all aspects of education, including athletics and sexual harassment – have little to fear from the Office for Civil Rights; they can openly defy the agency, withhold records and fail to heed agreements with impunity, a USA TODAY investigation found.

Even when the agency finds them at fault for blatant violations of the law, sanctions do not follow. Rather, it works “cooperatively” to nudge schools toward compliance with resolution agreements and monitoring – a process that often drags on for years and ends long after the aggrieved students graduate or leave school.

Its only sanction for violating Title IX is to revoke all federal funds – an act so severe that it has never used it. As a result, dozens of schools openly skirt the law, continuing to violate Title IX by shortchanging female athletes of playing opportunities and scholarships or failing to crack down on campus sexual assault, USA TODAY found as part of its yearlong investigation…

HEART BREAKING PERSONAL EXPERIENCE from this Article:

In the meantime, students like Hannah Smith are left to wonder if they’ll ever see justice.

In September 2019, the OCR agreed to investigate Smith’s complaint that Michigan State failed to resolve her sexual harassment case promptly. But the agency’s investigation has now lasted longer than the school’s case.

Michigan State took nearly 600 days to investigate her allegations that a professor made misogynistic comments and inappropriate remarks about her appearance. The Title IX office started an investigation, outsourced it to a law firm, reassigned it to an internal investigator and then reassigned it to the original investigator. Ultimately, the school found the professor not responsible. In the meantime, Smith graduated, and the professor retired with emeritus status.

Michigan State deputy spokesman Dan Olsen declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said the university was processing an unusually high number of cases during that time. Since then, Olsen said, it has made progress to improve the timeliness of cases and is bringing in more staff to help.

“All I wanted from the Title IX office was for him to have a T.A. (teaching assistant) so he wouldn’t be able to talk to me after class,” Smith said. “That was literally it. And here we are, five years later.” 

FOR MORE:

*Read this AMAZING Entire Article Here: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/12/15/title-ix-enforcement-essentially-toothless-mired-red-tape-delays/10803850002/

In conclusion, there are many articles with evidence, facts as well as so many peoples’ stories and personal experiences that prove that BOTH the Colleges and OCR seem to do very little to bring Justice for Victims which are mainly: Women, People of Color, LGBTQ+ and Marginalized Groups ☹

Fortunately, there have been several efforts to eliminate or mitigate GBV injustices…one such well-known effort was the #MeToo movement.

Most that use social media have likely seen the MeToo hashtag on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), etc. The #MeToo movement took the nation and world by storm by enabling individuals to publicize their experiences of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and the rape culture at the workplace, most notably in the Entertainment Industry.

The response became front and centerstage in the media which led to the termination of many high-profile Hollywood Elites. One of the most famous cases was that of Harvey Weinstein.

However, there was a lot of criticism because many people thought the #MeToo movement focused way too much on the Entertainment Industry and neglected to bring awareness to the same sort of abuses that happen to everyday individuals who experience GBV in less visible areas of life.

One such demographic that is struggling with GBV are college students who are only trying to exercise their right to receive a safe and enjoyable education.

Unfortunately, alarming statistics support and prove that a large number of these “Paying Customers (College Students),” who are trying to achieve their dreams and goals of bettering themselves through a diploma are being subjected to not only Gender-Based Violence (GBV) by some fellow students and faculty, but are also are being afflicted by corruption and abuse through their very own school’s administration and policies.

In addition, to add insult to injury, the U.S. Government Agency (OCR) that is charged with the responsibility to enforce Title IX does next to nothing to bring justice for these victims of GBV. Furthermore, this lack of action results in enabling “Toxic Cultures” and appalling behaviors across U.S. College Campuses.

Through comprehensive research using college and government databases, online media sources and more, it has been determined and made crystal clear that the “Root Cause to GBV on College Campuses” is due to the failure of the OCR not properly enforcing Title IX.

In closing, if rich and famous women in Hollywood are being sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and raped…

-What do you think is happening to Young Women, LGBTQ+ and Marginalized Groups during their College Years across the U.S.?

Here is a brief snapshot of some Disturbing facts of GBV:

• Gender-Based Violence (GBV): GBV encompasses verbal and physical actions, sexual harassment and assault, rape and other forms of abusive behavior.
• Women ages 18-24 in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to experience GBV.
• Data on GBV is Challenging: Many do not report sexual assault and data is widely considered to be underreported.
• Impacts of GBV: Rape survivors are the largest group of persons with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• 81% Women report experiencing sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime.

Join our movement to bring awareness, support and help us “Break the Culture of Silence” for all those who are being GBV’d during their college experience and are not getting justice through their colleges as well as the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)!

#StandUpToGBV #RateMyCollege