Speak up instead of staying silent
This is the Our View, prepared by the Editorial Board and the institutional voice of The Record.
**Editor’s Note:**
Landon Peterson is a current Pat 2 resident, and Will Schwinghammer wrote a news article about the Pat 1 and Pat 2 allegations. This column is inspired by these events, but seeks to broaden and further the discussion.
The allegations coming out of Pat 1 and Pat 2 are disturbing, but not surprising. Across campus, the country and the world, there is a history of sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegations that often go unaddressed or unreported. Part of this issue results from an unspoken code of silence, especially among men, where people tend to not report incidents to protect potential perpetrators from the consequences of their own actions. In this opinion, the “code of silence” does not refer to sexual assault survivors who, for whatever reason, are unable to report.
The code of silence, part of a larger culture that allows sexual assault to continue, is broader than committing assault. Knowing something and refusing to act is taking the easy way out instead of doing the right thing, and that allows complacency to fester. Come to terms with the fact that bad things happen here too. Refusing to call it out when it happens allows this behavior and these attitudes to continue. It allows assailants to go unpunished and it betrays survivors of sexual assault. Silence indicates that we value protecting the attackers more than we value protecting survivors.
There is more to preventing sexual assault than just not committing assault. To paraphrase Jeff Glover, sexual assault is born out of attitudes where we don’t see others as human beings. Johnnies, making jokes or playing games you wouldn’t want your Bennie friends to know about is living ingenuously. These jokes reinforce attitudes that devalue others, and that can lead to assault. Even if the connection isn’t direct, it’s still disrespectful.
CSB/SJU speaks about community nearly constantly. It’s one of our core values, and we see reflections of it all the time. We saw community at its best last weekend on Homecoming, and we see it at its worst every time we find out that a group of people know something and don’t speak up about it.
Building a community is about making sure everyone feels welcome and safe. Everyone has the right to feel safe on campus, visiting a friend’s dorm or moving around at night. A culture of silence disrupts that sense of community. No one floor meeting, educational section or article can change campus culture. Only consistent communal effort can change a culture, and that takes all of us working on it all the time.