UNITED STATES
Think Progress
BY MASON ATKINS APRIL 24, 2014
In 1991, Congress passed the Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law that requires all colleges in the United States to accurately and effectively collect and disclose reports of sexual crimes that occur on their campuses and help end sexual violence on college campuses. Today, as college activists work to hold their administrations accountable for their sexual assault policies, the Clery Law is one of the federal requirements that allows them to demand change. But not every campus is required to follow it.
Two institutions that do not comply with the Clery Act are Pensacola Christian College (PCC) and Patrick Henry College (PHC). The colleges are two of 65 candidates and members of TRACS, the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. And like many other colleges across the country, these institutions have been accused of mishandling rape cases.
Pensacola Christian College came under serious scrutiny after former student Samantha Field published the events of how PCC responded to her when she tried to seek counseling after a sexual assault. At one point, she was told by one of the five guidance counselors PCC has on staff to forgive her assailant because “bitterness will take seed and that bitterness will be so much worse than anything he could have done.”
At Patrick Henry College, a student tried to go to the office of Dean of Student Life to report harassment from a male classmate who had sent her an email that stated he “wanted to forcibly take her virginity.” As reported in the New Republic, the student was told that “the choices you make and the people you choose to associate with, the way you try to portray yourself, will affect how people treat you” and that she should “think about her clothing and ‘the kinds of ideas it puts in men’s minds.’”
College administrators at PCC and Patrick Henry have denied the students’ claims. But the alleged reactions of both institutions are classic examples of victim-blaming, and are indicative of the continuing rape culture epidemic that is exposing itself in colleges throughout the United States. The toxicity of rape culture extends extends even farther than victim blaming and reducing the agency of an individual. In some cases it has young women convinced that sexual harassment and violence are normal behaviors, which discourages so many from reporting these crimes.
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