Five is a small number. Picturing five friends or classmates is an easy task. There are five oceans, five senses, five members of the Scooby-Doo gang. Now, picture that one in each of these groups is a victim of sexual assault. One in five women are sexually assaulted on college campuses, with nearly two-thirds of the incidents going unreported.
Knowing that I will be stepping onto a college campus as more than just an anxious, wide-eyed visitor in two years makes me nervous. Not only do I have to adjust to living and learning in a place surrounded by 20,000 strangers, but the threat of sexual assault will loom over each corridor and courtyard. Though I’m confident that I am well-educated on how to defend myself, I’m also aware that situations may occur that are out of my control. And what about my female classmates who represent the unlucky one-fifth statistic? Will they know self-defense or be able to report the assault?
In 2015, Senate Bill 695 was passed out of the California Assembly Education Committee. This Bill aims to protect students on college campuses by educating high schoolers in how to prevent sexual assault. This curriculum, most likely delivered through health classes, will teach young women and young men how to deal with sexual harassment and violence by discussing prevention strategies, how to report abuse, the affirmative consent standard, and the legal aspects of sexual assault. This is knowledge they can use to shrink the number of incidents of sexual assault on college campuses. Amazing.
Clearly, California has exhibited exemplary legislative behavior by instituting Senate Bill 695, but we shouldn’t be satisfied yet. With luck and possibly a prayer, other states will follow California’s lead and employ their own form of 695, educating our country’s youth about sexual assault. And hopefully as a result, more young American women like myself won’t feel they have to cross colleges off our list because of their high sexual assault rate.
Hopefully with the implementation laws like this, we will no longer be able to count the college campus sexual assault rate on one hand.