Today, The George Washington University’s college newspaper, The Hatchet , ran an article about an incident that I find completely outrageous. Earlier this week, an incident happened in the freshman dorm wherein a young man, who we now know was a freshman at the University of Maryland, reportedly was intoxicated when he entered the dorm and proceeded to enter the rooms of several young women, crawl into their beds and initiate what has been called “unwanted sexual contact.” According to one of the women, the man “ "tried to kiss her, 'and attempted twice to place his hands down the front of her shorts.'" The woman woke up screaming and the man fled and ran into another young woman’s room.
The young man has now been charged with first-degree burglary. Burglary? That doesn’t even begin to cover the crimes that this student is alleged to have committed. When asked to comment, the defendant’s attorney said , “This is not a sexual assault case. You have a really good kid who has never been in trouble his entire life. It's your typical freshman 'I went out and had too much to drink and was being silly' kind of case." Everyone makes mistakes their freshman year of college. Sexual assault—of which this is clearly a case —is not a mistake, it is a crime. What a dangerous world we live in if this kind of behavior can be labeled as “typical.” He went on to comment, “This frankly shouldn't even be a criminal case. I think it's being entirely blown out of proportion." The way this case is being handled is terrible and thoroughly trivializes the experiences of these women who were victimized in their own rooms. This type of behavior is completely unacceptable—and illegal—regardless of the level of the man’s intoxication or his prior behavior. This dismissal of his behavior as a normal freshman student having too much fun sets an awful standard for students on campus and fails to do justice to the victims in this case.
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To answer your question: Since it happens to women.
Exactly. I mean what do you expect when you are passed out (aka sleeping) in your own bed?
/end sarcasm.
And gee, how come this guy didn't try this shit on the men's floor/dorm/wing (or however they've got it set up)?
I suppose some believe that "boys will be boys", though I wonder if the roles were reversed if anyone would excuse her behavior as "girls being girls".
This attitude also influences how much child support/alimony a man is ordered to pay by a court. A friend of mine from college ended up getting pregnant by a man she dated very briefly in high school and at seventeen found herself a mother. She found to her chagrin that the same argument made by this lawyer ("good kid, never been in trouble his whole life, etc, etc) was used to allow him pay a much less substantial share of alimony and child support than would have been helpful. The male judge was sympathetic and that was that.
I suppose some believe that "boys will be boys", though I wonder if the roles were reversed if anyone would excuse her behavior as "girls being girls".
In fairness and hoping not to derail, any man making a complaint that a woman crawled into his bed and put her hands in his pants would be laughed right out of the police station.
Maybe some places, but not if it they are good police officers working there. Maybe if they were all chauvanist males. The police officers in my town actually tend to be well-trained in handling sexual assault though.
This is unacceptable! Make your voice heard! Get people riled up; make a petition! Even if you can't change what was written in the people, or even if everyone tries to shoot you down, keep fighting and let everyone know that this is so wrong!
In these situations, this is my favorite quote:
"I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity."
-Nadezhda Mandelstam
Write emails to the Dean of Students, the President of the school, head of housing, Provost, CC everyone! Make noise, post fliers.... UGHH! This is horrible, I am so sorry.
Actually, it appears the decision was made by the US Attorney's Office, which has jurisdiction for criminal cases in DC. It might be worth contacting the University about revising policies for signing people into dorms, especially as this guy was apparently signed in by a male student who didn't know him. However, the decision as to how to charge him was out of the university's hands, especially as he is not a student there.
Spike the Cat, that dorm is sex-segregated by room only, not by floor, at least when I lived in it about a decade ago. Not that your point isn't still valid, especially in light of the fact that he apparently entered five women's rooms that night, but there were no reports of him crawling in bed with any men. This decision makes me sick, and I plan on contacting the DOJ about this tomorrow.
Seth Rudnitsky's life is over. Employers, girlfriends and friends will forever be able to google his name and come up with news clips about this story. Knowing all that is a small comfort in the face of all the pain he's caused. He violated the space and bodies of all those women in ways he will never understand. I hope he gets counseling asap.
Of course, a legal name change could potentially fix all that, no?
Just in general, this makes me sick.
But it also hits a nerve with me, considering one of the men who has sexually assaulted me used the same excuse. He held me down, lifted my shirt, and touched my breasts, but when I asked (no, begged) him to stop, he only held me down harder and said "C'mon! I'm just a silly person. I like to joke around. Where's your sense of humor?"
Interesting, I don't seem to have a sense of humor about someone physically restraining me in order to touch me in ways I'm continually asking him not to.
Omg this is bad! How did this settle as ok with the US Attorney's Office!? This makes me sick to my stomach.
It reminds me of my sophomore year of college when I was sitting in my bed (in the nude btw) watching TV. I guess I didn't turn the lock all the way when I answered the door much earlier for the delivery person a couple hours earlier. A strange young man came into my apt and walked into my bedroom and stood at the food of my bed. I screamed "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!!" and he just stood there with a blank look on his face. It wasn't until I threw my phone at him that he turned and walked out my door. I was petrified and called the cops. They said "Oh, it sounds like he was probably just drunk. I doubt it'll happen again." And then made some quip about how if I was so concerned about my safety I would've mad for sure that the door was rightly locked. That was the end of it.
*Sigh* What is up with people!?
Yeah, it's the "silly" "touchy-feely" guys who creep me out too. There was a doctor who was inappropriate with my behind, who excused his behavior as "I'm a touchy feely kind of guy" "It's just the way I am"