April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). This year’s observation of SAAM marks the 20th anniversary of a movement to “raise awareness sexual violence around the world and to educate communities on how to prevent it.”

First, let us define the specific kind of sexual violence that SAAM is focused on raising awareness for: sexual assault. According to womenshealth.gov, sexual assault is “any type of activity sexual activity or contact” that a person did not consent to. 

This then leads us to more questions. What is it to consent to sexual activity? And what is it to not consent to sexual activity? We can answer these questions by looking at RAINN.org. RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and a great resource for learning more about sexual assault prevention and safety. 

A person gives consent to participating in a sexual activity when they clearly say yes to participating. Consent can only be given by people who know what is going on and what is entailed in the sexual activity, is not threatened or under duress, is of age, is able to properly communicate ongoing consent and is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

A lack of consent is when a person gives anything other than a clear yes to participating in a sexual activity. Even if a person does not directly say no to a particular sexual encounter, this does not automatically mean that an individual is in fact consenting to participating in said encounter. Giving consent to one type of sexual activity does not then mean that a person is giving consent to participating in another kind of sexual activity. 

Nor does it mean that the consent is unretractable or ever-lasting. A person can retract consent at any moment during a sexual encounter and all parties engaged should respect that individual’s decision to stop participating in the sexual encounter. 

What consent is and what it is not seems clear enough. There are a plethora of resources out there to help simplify the slew of information given above. As this website shows, there are numerous comics, videos and infographics to help get the basics of what consent looks like and what it does not. 

With all these resources and the ease by which we can access them in an age of digitization, why should we need a month to raise awareness of sexual assault? Statistics for sexual assault should be low given this the access we have to resources

Access to resources is all well and good, but sexual assault is a major problem worldwide. It is this easy-going attitude about sexual assault that is part of the problem.

To illustrate just how much of a problem sexual assault is in the United States, one only needs to see the statistics which can be found on RAINN.org. Every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. At least 1 in 6 women have been a victim of an attempted or completed rape. In 1998, an estimated 17.7 million American women were victims of complete or attempted rape. In the U.S., 1 in 10 rape victims is male

College campuses are especially dangerous places. Female college students in between the ages of 18 and 24 are three times more likely than non-college females are  to experience sexual assault. On college campuses, 21% of transgender students have experienced sexual assault.

Obviously, sexual assault is a problem and we should be particularly concerned with educating students about given the increased risk associated with sexual assault on campus. But my aim with this article is more than just to spew facts and numbers about sexual assault on to a document – this is, after all, not the News nor the Features page. 

I am the Lifestyle Editor of The Hilltop Monitor. And, as the Lifestyle Editor, I have been trying to guide this page into being something more than just the usual grab-bag of pleasant trivialities. In my application for being part of the editorial staff, I mentioned that my ideal for a Lifestyle page was that it should be centered on trying to answer specific questions: What is it to live well? And how do we know? 

I imagine that this will get a couple of chuckles from the people who know me. I bring philosophy and ethics into everything I do, and it seems that I’m on a personal quest to turn the Lifestyle page into Ethics 101. Still, if a Lifestyle page is inspired and centered on our personal lives, why wouldn’t we want something that celebrates and seeks to cultivate our highest potential? We should want something that seeks to always uncover what good personal lifestyles are. 

I think that SAAM offers people the opportunity to take a moment to reflect on whether or not their lifestyles are in fact good in a way that’s about interpersonal relations. Even more importantly, SAAM is a time for people to reflect about things that we tend to not want to reflect about. 

It is undoubtedly true that a major component of SAAM is to bring awareness about the barebone facts that I touched upon above. What is consent? What percentage of people are survivors of sexual assault? Who is most at risk? 

The facts themselves should be well known, and the fact that they are not is appalling and speaks to the ways in which we tend to engage in a culture of victim-blaming. 

But, I think knowledge, which is what some of the word awareness is trying to capture within the title of SAAM, is more than this abstract knowledge of barebones facts. It’s about wanting to ground the content of our beliefs. It’s about being able to orient our lives, our habits, the ways that we interact with others, based on these otherwise barebones facts. 

It’s not enough to just know these statistics. You have to do something about it – and that’s what SAAM is really about and why I think this article belongs on the lifestyle page. What SAAM seeks to ideally bring about at a cultural level is a lifestyle change in all of us. Knowing what we know, that sexual assault is clearly a problem, what do we do to prevent, to support, to make a difference? 

I’m no expert in the field. But there seem to me to be some very clear ways that we can habituate ourselves into being more conscientious, more aware of the ways in which we can make a direct, practical impact into the lives of survivors of sexual assault and in preventing the perpetuation of a sexual assault. If we are interested in being good human beings, which I think that we all should be interested in being good human beings, then we ought to make an effort to make the necessary lifestyle changes this April to make the world at least a teensy bit better. 

For one thing, I think that there is a tendency to be afraid of the topic of sexual assault, to the detriment of anyone who needs support or resources for sexual assault. It is undoubtedly awful to hear that someone you care about has been hurt and our knee jerk response to this is to try and find a way out of this situation. We may try to minimize some of the damage by claiming that perhaps the situation is not as bad as the person is claiming that it is. Or we may try to deny the situation altogether and tell the person not to talk about it. 

I think this is a rather human response to a scary situation. But if you find it scary to hear about sexual assault, imagine how much scarier it is to be the person who experienced sexual assault. Then imagine how terrifying it is to be utterly alone because everyone around you keeps telling you that it must not have been so bad, or that you should stop talking about it because you’re scaring people. In essence, in trying to protect yourself, you’re isolating someone who has gone through something awful.

You should instead take seriously someone’s subjective experience instead of looking for a way to minimize it or make it less scary. It is what it is – you are not the epistemic authority here, they are. If you feel as though you cannot handle hearing about it, the solution is not to push the victim down.

The solution is to communicate to that person that you do not have the necessary emotional capacity to hear this rather stressful account and then refer them to the proper resources, such as MOCSA’s 24 hour crisis line. There’s no shame in having a limit to the amount of stressful things you can hear – do not overextend yourself as a human being. Do not make the person who is otherwise opening up to you feel as though their subjective experience of something awful is not real. It is real, and it should be taken seriously.

If you are going to listen to someone opening up to you about sexual assault, then I would advise you to take it very seriously. Our interpersonal relations are the ways in which we as human beings ground our sense of selves. If we do not feel as though the other understands us – if we feel alien, or otherwise incomprehensible – that tends to have pretty negative consequences for how we esteem ourselves.

The act of opening up about sexual assault is an act of vulnerability and it is crucial that you use that as a moment of interpersonal bolstering. That means doing all that you can to not judge the other person at all. The simple mantra you can keep in mind to avoid judging someone is the following: sexual assault is not the fault of the person who is the victim of sexual assault. It does not matter whether the person in question was dressed provocatively, or whether they were intoxicated, or whether they acted irresponsibly, whatever that means.

To argue this – which the fact that this needs to be argued is appalling – consider the case of robbery. Would you tell someone whose very fancy house was robbed that they were asking to be robbed because their house was so pretty? Or what if they just so happened to forget to lock up one night because they were really sleepy? Would you berate the homeowner for years for such reckless irresponsibility? If you did, I would say that you’re misunderstanding the concept of robbery and wrongness.

You should focus on the fact that the person was wronged by someone else. The other person is the one who did something wrong by committing an act of robbery. Whether the house is pretty or whether the homeowner was sleepy is strictly irrelevant to the wrongness of robbery. It’s robbery. It’s wrong. The person was wronged. End of story.

I imagine that the parallel between sexual assault is clear enough. I think that if we keep these two things in mind, we can start making important changes in our lifestyles interpersonally based on our beliefs about sexual assault such that we can come to lead better lives. Good, human, social lives which help others to meet their needs. 

This article hardly covers the amount of work that anyone can and should put in to improve themselves this month to raise awareness of and prevent sexual assault. Thus, dear reader, I encourage you to take this piece as a potential starting point for your continued lived inquiry and continue down the path of becoming a better human being by constantly engaging with difficult questions, even when it is not the officially designated time of SAAM. 

I was sexually assaulted by four different men before I knew it was wrong

Content Warning: This Letter to the Editor contains details of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is suffering from trauma due to sexual assault, please consult this list of resources: William Jewell Student Health Center, MOCSA, William Jewell Office of Counseling Services or William Jewell Student Life. Please note that Student Life is a mandated reporter of assault, whereas the other resources listed are confidential. If you need immediate counseling, contact the MOCSA hotline at (816) 531-0233 or (913) 642-0233, or chat online with a trained staff member. 

Growing up, I was taught about consent. I knew “no means no” and that if people touched my body without a “yes” it was wrong. But as I grew up, I started to view my body and sexuality differently. 

I was a late bloomer. I didn’t get my first boyfriend until I was just about 18 years old. We talked about sex, and I knew it was important to him. I was excited to experience what I’d heard my friends talking about. After I lost my virginity (a phrase I am not particularly fond of), I began to think that sex was to be expected. I was there for enjoyment, and even on days when I wasn’t up to it, I let him use me for sex. There were many days where I did not consent and came out of the experience feeling worse than before he started. However, I thought that was how relationships were supposed to be and that as long as he said he cared about me it was fine. 

The next relationship I had was primarily focused on sex. I did not like that, so I told him we needed to stop having sex. I hoped that it would allow us to grow closer emotionally, but every night I would go to see him, he would coerce me into sex. Rarely did I want to, but I believed that my relationship depended on making him happy and entertaining him. 

There was a night I said “no” explicitly, but we still continued, and I allowed it. Afterward, he apologized and said he felt terrible, so I assumed it would be fine. After two relationships where consent was never at the forefront, I was beginning to think it was the same with every relationship. I was very wrong. 

A month before I came to college, I went on a date with a man seven years older than me. He kept asking for me to come over, and I was very uncomfortable at the thought of being alone with him. I decided that we could meet at a SONIC Drive-In. I did not want to go, but I felt the need to appease him. Immediately after entering his car, he was forcing me to kiss him and proceeded to put his hand down my pants. We were in public, in daylight, and his two-year-old kid was in the back seat. I attempted to talk to and play with his kid to try and get him to stop. After a few minutes I made an excuse and left. I did not tell anyone, and I went home feeling empty. 

I thought that he was just an anomaly or that I was somehow to blame. Like, maybe I said something to him that made him think that was what I wanted or that it was just expected out of me. My mom never talked about sex very much and my dad only made jokes about it. How was I supposed to know anything about sexual assault when all I knew were the extreme cases I watched in “Criminal Minds”? I was convinced it wasn’t really sexual assault because I didn’t end up bloody or with bruises or left in the middle of nowhere. 

When I came to college, I thought I would be safe. I knew campus was small and hoped it would be easy to assess which guys to avoid and which ones were keepers. I went to see an upperclassman boy. It was the third time we had spent time together. He wanted me to spend the night, and I did not. He wanted to have sex, and I did not. He continually tried to take my clothes off, and I said “nuh-uh” every time. He continued regardless. I did not want to ruin his fun or be a downer. After a while of repeating “nuh-uh,” I just stopped saying anything. After, he apologized, and I told him it was no big deal. I left feeling empty and swore I wouldn’t tell anyone.

I’m happy to say that I did tell someone. 

That someone is the reason I understand now that I am not something for men to use. My body is mine and is not for someone else’s entertainment. I finally understand that rape is not just the brutal and rough action depicted in crime shows. Rape is every time someone says “no” or “nuh-uh” or “not tonight” or “maybe later,” and the other person proceeds anyway. It took me 20 years to finally understand what rape really is, and it’s heartbreaking that it took that long.

I don’t know if anything could’ve stopped my rape, but I think I could’ve recognized sexual assault a lot sooner if I had been educated on more common forms of assault. I like to think that our generation will be the one to stop rape and sexual assault, but if we refuse to talk about it or don’t educate ourselves in the first place, it’ll never get better.

Everyone needs something different when it comes to trauma, so it’s important to respect boundaries. However, the only way to make the world a better place is to open up about our experiences and hope that someone will be there to listen and understand and help you through it all. It’s our job to be the understanding ones. The ones who want to help. The ones who will teach their friends, family and children about different forms of sexual assault and that their voices matter. No matter your story, no matter how much you think someone won’t listen or that you’re alone, there will always be someone who cares. Speak up, and act now.

If you or someone you know is suffering from trauma due to sexual assault, please consult this list of resources: William Jewell Student Health Center, MOCSA, William Jewell Office of Counseling Services or William Jewell Student Life. Please note that Student Life is a mandated reporter of assault, whereas the other resources listed are confidential. If you need immediate counseling, contact the MOCSA hotline at (816) 531-0233 or (913) 642-0233, or chat online with a trained staff member.

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please email monitor@william.jewell.edu.

In an effort to increase accessibility of resources and training, William Jewell College staff are aiming to release a centralized Title IX course on Moodle by mid-February. The course, which is in the late stages of planning, will host a variety of resources for students as well as a mandatory Title IX training series in the future.

While the resources and information on the course will be available immediately, the accompanying training series will be available later this year. All returning Jewell students will be required to complete the review training series, titled “Training in 20!” after its official launch.

Title IX is a civil rights law that protects people from sex-based discrimination in education programs and institutions that recieve federal financial assistance, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Sexual harassment and assault, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, quid pro quo and general hostile environments all fall within the scope of Title IX violations.

The “Training in 20!” series breaks up essential content about Title IX into four modules: informed consent, bystander intervention, the reporting process and available resources both on and off campus. After students have reviewed all four modules, they must pass an end-of-course quiz to conclude the mandatory training. The entire series should take around 20 minutes to complete. The training series is subject to change, however, at the discretion of staff.

Additionally, the course will feature resources such as:

• Student Title IX training;
• Procedures for reporting Title IX violations;
• Emergency crisis information;
• Resources for victims, such as how to request a free SANE exam;
• Counseling, support groups and therapy referrals;
• Medical resources, such as information about STDs and pregnancy;
• Tips on bystander intervention;
• Information about informed consent; and
• Instruction on how to request further training.

The course was designed and created by Anti-harassment Education and Awareness Coordinator Missy Henry in collaboration with the Director of Counseling Services, Director of Campus Safety, Title IX Coordinator and several student leaders.

According to Henry, the decision to create the Moodle course was influenced by the platform’s accessibility to students. By providing Title IX information and resources in a centralized location, she hopes that students will be empowered to do their part in preventing and reporting discrimination and harassment.

“My hope… is that students will gain a deeper understanding of the essential role that consent plays in fostering a community of mutual respect, health, and safety,” Henry said. “I hope that students will understand that each and every person on our campus has the power and responsibility, through bystander intervention, to call out concerning behavior that could lead to sexual harassment [and/or] sexual assault, [and]…that students will learn where and how to get help if they, or a friend, experiences harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking.”

The Moodle course features important resources – such as how to file a police report and emergency hotlines – that are accessible to students 24/7 and as needed. Providing sources that they can access easily and anonymously may be an integral part in ensuring Title IX violations are reported.

Currently, students are only required to complete an initial Title IX training course each fall as part of orientation.

“The fact that we have not had training since then really kind of sucks. As much as I liked orientation, I remember almost none of it except for the basic stuff from the Kahoot,” said Isabel Warden, sophomore public relations and theatre, who completed initial Title IX training in the fall 2019 semester.  

Although she believes a Moodle course isn’t going to make much of a difference in terms of stopping particular students from violating Title IX, Warden said she sees the value in re-informing students about consent and bystander intervention.

“[Harassment and assault] is hard to prevent because… there are still going to be people who have the mindset that it’s okay to [engage in these behaviors],” Warden said. “But I do believe that by doing more training, more people will be able to recognize ‘Hey, that’s sexual assault,’ or ‘Hey, what you are doing is not okay.’”

Warden said she hopes to see a list of non-mandated reporters with the course resources, stating that fear of unintentionally opening a Title IX case may prevent a lot of students from speaking up about their experiences.

According to the Sexual Harassment Policy, which was updated as of August 2020, all college employees are mandated reporters with the exception of “Mental Health Professionals at Counseling Services and the Medical Professionals at the Student Health Center.” 

Overall, Warden said she advocates for Title IX procedures to be taken more seriously on both a student and administrative level, and an improvement to how students receive training is a step in the right direction.

“As a woman on campus, I feel like [the training] is very beneficial, and not only to my health but to everyone on campus… and as an empathetic person, I can’t be satisfied with my community unless I know that everyone else feels safe and comfortable,” Warden said.

—

For confidential resources – staff members who will not report a violation to the Title IX Coordinator – students can visit mental health professionals at the Office of Counseling Services and medical professionals at the Student Health Center. These confidential sources will not report any information except if required by law, such as in the case of child abuse or potential for serious harm.

Any student who has paid the Health and Wellness fee is eligible for short-term therapy services at the Office of Counseling Services. For more information, students can email the Director of Counseling Services, Dr. Tricia Hager, at counselingservices@william.jewell.edu. 

Similarly, students can see Jewell’s nurse practitioner, Paula Brown, at the Student Health Center as long as they have a valid Jewell ID. To schedule a Telehealth appointment or request more information, students can email healthcenter@william.jewell.edu, or call 816-415-5020.

To report Title IX violations, students can contact the Director of Human Resources and Title IX Coordinator Julie Dubinsky at dubinskyj@william.jewell.edu, or visit their office at 109 Curry Hall during normal business hours; and students can contact the Campus Safety Director and Deputy Title IX Coordinator Landon Jones at jonesl@william.jewell.edu, or visit their office at 124 Curry Hall during normal business hours. 

All college employees, excluding mental health and medical professionals, are required to report Title IX violations as mandatory reporters.

Off-campus resources can be found at:

• Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433);
• MOCSA (Metropolitan Organization to Combat Sexual Assault) 24/7 Crisis Line and Advocacy Services at 816-531-0233 or 913-642-0233, or https://www.mocsa.org/services/24-hour-support;
• Domestic Violence Metro 24/7 Hotline at 816-468-5463;
• Child Abuse Hotline for Missouri at 1-800-392-3738 and Kansas at 1-800-922-5330;
• LGBTQ Violence (Kansas City) Anti-Violence Project Hotline at 816-561-0550;
• Access Crisis Intervention (ACI) Hotline for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis at 1-888-279-8188.

If you or someone you know is in danger, call 911.

On May 3, a former student, identified only by her initials, A.P., filed a lawsuit against William Jewell College regarding a sexual assault that occurred during Homecoming week of 2017. In the suit, A.P. claims that she was sexually assaulted and raped by a fellow Jewell student identified only as Z.P. “as a direct and proximate result” of the College’s negligence. A.P. claims that the school’s “breach of its fiduciary duty” resulted in “ongoing emotional stress, pain and suffering, and her studies and education have suffered substantially.”

The above and following information detailing the allegations comes entirely from the official lawsuit filed by the plaintiff and her lawyers, a copy of which was obtained by Monitor reporters.

The lawsuit includes claims that the school failed to provide A.P. with sufficient mental health care and emotional support after the incident and that she was threatened with expulsion by school administration officials if she spoke to anyone else, besides medical professionals or a therapist, about the rape.

The first local news outlet to cover this story, after discovering the case among recent entries filed to the US District Court, was The Kansas City Star, which published an article entitled “A football player raped her. She blames William Jewell College for not preventing it” on Tuesday morning. After this news broke, papers throughout the country began to publish stories about the lawsuit – the story was eventually published on Newsweek, a national news organization.

According to the suit, on the night of the rape, A.P. and her assailant, Z.P., had each been drinking separately. They began a conversation in the lobby of Browning Hall, a first-year dorm, and Z.P. eventually followed A.P. up to her room to watch movies with her and her friends. That night A.P. told Z.P. multiple times she was not going to have sexual intercourse with him.

Later that night – after falling asleep while watching movies – A.P. became aware of Z.P. raping her as she drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point A.P. recalls shouting “No! Stop! I don’t want this!” The lawsuit states that A.P.’s roommate heard and corroborated A.P.’s verbal dissent. The last thing A.P. remembers of that night is seeing Z.P. use her t-shirt to wipe semen off himself. The next morning, around 8 a.m., A.P. woke up alone and went to Liberty Hospital for a sexual assault forensic examination – otherwise known as a rape kit – and reported the rape to Liberty police.

The Liberty Police conducted an investigation after which the Clay County prosecutor declined to file charges, according to the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, during Jewell’s Title IX investigation, they found that there was “a preponderance of evidence” showing that Z.P. had assaulted A.P. He was placed on Partial Interim Suspension which included him moving to an off-campus apartment and not being able to participate in school-sponsored activities. After violating this he was placed on Full Term Suspension – he was ultimately expelled from Jewell Nov. 14, 2017, the suit says.

The lawsuit claims that Jewell was negligent on several fronts during this incident. The first was not doing a thorough background check of Z.P. before he came to the school. This background check would have revealed that Z.P. was transferred to an alternative high school midway through his senior year after being charged with an “unauthorized sexual act.”

The suit claims that Jewell was negligent by failing to provide A.P. sufficient mental health care and emotional support following the assault. A.P. claimed that, following her attack, she was harassed through an anonymous messaging site and that men banged on her dorm room and said, “We are going to do you like [Z.P.] did you!” the suit says.

Z.P. was fined $2000, a tenet of his punishment, and that money was available to A.P. so she could seek mental health treatment. However, the lawsuit claims that she needed to seek permission from Dr. Andrew Pratt, Jewell’s anti-harassment coordinator and Title IX coordinator at the time, to use these funds and that the school would have access to her medical records in regards to her treatment. The suit also claims that if the money went unused for a limited amount of time the money would revert back to Jewell for its own discretionary use.

The lawsuit also says that Browning Hall had a knock and check policy, performed by Resident Assistants (RAs) and/or the Resident Director (RD), which the school failed to follow. The suit claims this policy is to ensure that no individuals are in the rooms who are not authorized to be there. The suit claims that the plaintiff put her trust and confidence in such policies but that they were performed only in the first week of classes.

The student handbook does not describe or make reference to a “knock and check” policy, and it is unknown whether a “knock and check” policy was included in the 2017 RA training.

It is also important to note that the assailant was in his own residence hall, which would not make him subject to guest housing rules. RAs and/or RDs are also not on duty past 1 a.m., so if the incident occured past that time there would be no one making rounds.

Furthermore, the lawsuit asserts that Z.P. had been under investigation by the school less than a month prior to the rape for illicitly recording a cell phone video of two other students having consensual sexual intercourse in a dorm room. Z.P. recorded the video from outside the dorm room window and sent it to the male student he filmed. Z.P. also sent it to several of his teammates on the football team and shared it to Snapchat.

Z.P. proceeded to show the video to an RA or the RD of Browning Hall, whereupon the RA or RD reported him to appropriate school authorities.

The full extent of this investigation is uncertain, but the suit observes that Z.P. was not placed on immediate suspension and was permitted to participate in campus activities and remain living on campus in the dormitory both he and A.P. lived in – a ruling that A.P.’s suit claims facilitated her rape.

While the College is limited from responding to these allegations prior to filing their official response in court, the statement Jewell released to multiple media outlets is as follows:

“While federal privacy laws limit our ability to comment on the specifics of this case, the College believes it took the appropriate steps in this matter in compliance with the law. The safety and security of our students is our top priority. We have a zero-tolerance policy related to sexual misconduct and have a comprehensive Title IX program in place that guides our response to any incident or allegation. As part of our commitment to our students, we also have support services and counseling available, mandatory training for faculty, staff, and students, and a strong partnership with the Liberty Police Department. William Jewell College believes we all have a responsibility to work every day to eliminate sexual misconduct from our campus and maintain a safe and healthy environment.”

Cara Dahlor, director of marketing and public relations, responded to Newsweek’s article denying the allegations that college officials threatened to expel A.P. and called contrary allegations “categorically false.”

“With respect to the incidents referenced in the lawsuit, the College is confident that it acted responsibly and in compliance with the law,” Dahlor said.

Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, president of William Jewell College, sent a campus-wide email on the night of May 7 – approximately 15 hours after the KC Star broke the story – addressing the news media’s publication of stories covering the suit. MacLeod Walls asserted that the articles published were informed only by the case files of the lawsuit produced by the suing party, meaning content of the articles are based solely on A.P.’s allegations.

MacLeod Walls stated that many of the allegations were inaccurate and that Jewell administration plans to prove this as the litigation process continues.

“What I can say—and it is important to me personally that you know this—is the College acted not only in a manner consistent with the law, but we also acted effectively in our investigation of the assault, our support for the woman involved, and our swift response after weighing the preponderance of the evidence,” MacLeod Walls wrote in the email.

MacLeod Walls also stated that the College continues to stand with the former student,  saying that she “hope[s] … that this former student is moving forward with her life and today is on a path to success.”

However, MacLeod Walls iterated that their support for the well-being of the plaintiff does not mean the College accepts A.P.’s claims of negligence or allegations of being threatened with expulsion by College officials. She concluded the email by saying that she welcomes questions campus community members may have regarding the situation.

A similar email was sent from MacLeod Walls to the wider Jewell community, including parents of current students, May 8.

JEWELL’S CULTURE SURROUNDING SEXUAL ASSAULT

Despite the seemingly abrupt explosion of media reports  on Title IX practices at Jewell, criticisms of the policies by current students is nothing new.

In 2016, Jewell held two lectures at which members of the Metropolitan Association to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA) spoke. They discussed sexual assault and what the community’s role in reporting sexual assault is.

The Jewell 2017 Student Senate brought in Dr. Andrew Pratt, then Title IX coordinator, to speak about reporting of crime on Jewell’s campus as the Senate felt that students were dissatisfied with the Title IX process. This meeting can be found on a livestream via the William Jewell College Student Senate Facebook page.

Pratt said that, over a time period of 30 months, 72 incidents falling under the jurisdiction of Title IX were reported to him, and 29 of these total reports were sexual misconduct student-versus-student. At minute 5:36 of the video, Pratt said that 10 of these 29 reports were of non-consensual intercourse.

In both the 2017 and 2018 Student Senate cabinet races, multiple candidates ran on platforms that promised to reform Title IX at Jewell. In 2018, the Title IX Office and the Office of Counseling Services (OCS) at Jewell worked to provide numerous programming events during Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). SAAM was recognized on campus again this year, with several events being hosted by OCS – an article detailing the programming can be found here.

One can primarily find the Title IX policies and procedures of Jewell in the school’s Anti-Harassment Policy and Grievance Procedures. This policy outlines different types of harassment and what the definition of consent is.

This policy discusses the scope of roles for who is involved in the Title IX investigation process and explains the process in a detailed manner. In this document, the College defines retaliation as a “material, adverse reaction” committed against a member of the Jewell community.  

WHERE DO JEWELL’S SEXUAL ASSAULT STATISTICS STAND?

Analysis of data from the Clery Report – a publicly accessible annual crime and safety report mandated for US colleges and universities by the Clery Act of 1990 – reveals that William Jewell has a comparatively high rate of on-campus rape reports in relation to the number of students who live on campus.

Every institution is required to submit a Clery Report including self-reported data about each crime committed that was reported to the institution, including rape and sexual assault. Jewell’s report can be found here.

According to the Department of Education (DOE), the data reported in each school’s Clery Report is not independently verified, meaning its accuracy is not guaranteed. This means that some institutions could elect to obscure some of its crime statistics, leading to a false appearance of low rates of crime. Other institutions may have muddled or confusing report processes that lead to a disproportionately low number of reports represented in the Clery Report. There is a possibility that some institutions with higher numbers of crime reports simply have more open and accessible venues for reports than others.

In 2017, Jewell had the highest amount of rape reports per 1,000 people among all four-year independent and public colleges and universities in the state of Missouri.

5.9 rapes per every 1000 students were reported at Jewell in 2017. No other college in the greater Kansas City area had a reported figure greater than 2.6 – meaning that Jewell’s number of reported rapes is greater than 2x that of other local colleges.

A Hilltop Monitor reporter compiled an interactive graphic of the data about the number of rapes reported on the campus of every four year institution in Missouri, visible here.

To standardize the data, allowing figures to be compared equally regardless of the institution’s size, the following data was calculated by dividing the number of rapes reported for each college on the Clery Report by the number of students who live on campus at each college. This number was then multiplied by 1000 to represent the amount of rape reports filed per 1000 people.

*Note: Only students who live on campus were counted since some large commuter schools have only a small fraction of students who live on campus and thus would have skewed figures if commuter students were counted.

According to a three-year average of rape reports from 2015-2017, Jewell had one of the highest number of rapes reported per 1000 students in the state. According to the DOE, “individual statistics for Rape, Fondling, Incest and Statutory Rape were not collected prior to the 2015 data collection,” meaning 2015 is the earliest year from which figures can be determined.  

Compared to colleges with a similar amount of students living on campus, Jewell’s report shows a larger number of rapes reported per every 1000 students. In 2017, William Woods University’s Clery Report showed one instance of rape brought to campus officials, while Westminster College and Central Methodist University reported zero. William Jewell reported four. Each of these colleges has a similar number of students living on campus to Jewell (600-700 students).

When viewing this data, it is important to take into account that the numbers in the Clery Report are a representation of the number of rapes reported to school officials – not necessarily the number of rapes that took place on campus. This means that schools with atmospheres that discourage reporting sexual assault or schools that don’t have accessible venues for victims to report their assaults to campus officials could have many more rapes occur on their campus than are indicated in the Clery Report.

WHAT ARE JEWELL STUDENTS SAYING?

In the wake of the recent lawsuit, The Hilltop Monitor reached out to over 50 students to learn about their perspectives on the situation. The majority of these students were willing to respond to provide statements for this article, though many elected to remain anonymous.

Though we reached out to students from a number of different disciplines and campus groups, many of them echoed the notion that Title IX proceedings on Jewell’s campus need to be revisited and reformed. Several students felt their own cases – or cases of their friends – had been mishandled and that punitive measures were inadequate. On the other hand, several students commented that they believe Jewell’s Title IX process to be robust and comprehensive.

Former Student Senate President Jakob Miller, senior mathematics and economics major, is aware that many students are frustrated with the Title IX process and, despite being optimistic about recent changes to the policy, is disappointed in Jewell’s response to the lawsuit.

“I’ve never had to experience anything related to the process of Title IX so it’s difficult for me to have an informed opinion on the matter. But I am aware of the students that have frustrations with this process. Most of which are attributed to the lack of transparency and personableness of those who coordinated the program in the past. Now that the leadership has changed under the program, I am hopeful students will become more trusting of the system. […] I am surprised by the accusations the law suit claims […] Time after time this school has faced bombshells like the HLC, ADPi shutdown, and journey grants, and in most of these instances the students receive an email. With this law suit, we deserve more than an email. We deserve a larger conversation where students can ask the questions that they feel are necessary” [sic]

Miller said.

Another student, one who elected not to partake in Jewell’s Title IX process, despite having grounds to, and who elected to remain anonymous when providing comments, said that the process has improved significantly throughout the past few years.

“As a victim of sexual assault on this campus I think the title IX system here has improved tremendously. In the past when my assault occurred, I didn’t feel as though I could speak out about it at jewell because people have said title IX Does nothing positive for the victim, so I stayed silent because I didn’t feel I really had other options. However hearing about this case, seeing that the student was expelled by the school, and watching the change in leadership for title IX occur, I think the school has taken great steps forward to try and improve the system.” [sic]

They said.

Despite the prevalence of students feeling silenced by Title IX facilitators, it is an established Title IX policy for all parties involved to keep information related to the case confidential while investigation is ongoing. The same student stated that it would be incorrect for the College community to draw conclusions about A.P.’s case or Jewell’s response based solely on the reporting of local news outlets.

“In terms of the lawsuit itself, I don’t feel as though we have adequate information to really know the truth about it. The publications that chose to write about the situation had contradicting stories, so it’s not very sure where the true facts lie. […] I’m surprised about the lawsuit because I feel as though the wrong people would be affected by it, if the lawsuit negatively impacts jewell it will negatively impact the students, many of whom are also victims of assault.” [sic]

They explained.

Anna Warner, senior Oxbridge: Literature and Theory major, has been privy to Jewell’s Title IX processes through the experiences of a friend and expressed dissatisfaction with the proceedings.

“I knew of a sexual assault case that happened to a friend of mine while we were both at Jewell. Being close to the people involved, I saw up-close Jewell’s inability to prioritize the victim of sexual assault. Title IX did little to help my friend, and the Jewell administration kept the sexual assaulter on campus with little punishment. I do not trust Jewell to take care of students that have suffered from sexual assault.” [sic]

Said Warner.

Talia Zook, senior communication, Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry, and Spanish major, echoed Miller’s concerns about the email sent from MacLeod Walls.

“I will give Jewell the benefit of the doubt in that, with my personal Title 9 case, I did receive justice. However, my situation was nowhere near traumatizing, and it had little to no affect on my life from that point on. Hardly anyone else on campus who has gone through the Title 9 process can say the same thing though. And I know this because most of them are friends. The President said it herself in her announcement defending Jewell, we are a community. Which, by the way, I did email her telling her it was very poorly written and in very poor taste. […] But we are a community, we live in a bubble, and we know everything about each other. For Jewell to claim that they/their actions in regards to success with carrying out/following Title 9 policies had NOTHING to do with the cause of her rape? Deplorable. It’s a 2 + 2 = 4 equation here. […] The letter the President sent out quickly shutting down any claims the student made gives everyone the green light to victim-blame this girl. […] there’s no doubt this announcement was sent to other victims on campus. How do you think they feel seeing that yet another student isn’t receiving the support they deserve for something that should have never happened on their campus? That announcement did nothing but further perpetuate trauma and let others know that if they choose to come out with their story, they too will just get shut down by the institution that is supposed to support them.” [sic]

Zook said.

Zoee Risdal, senior psychological science major, spoke about how Jewell handles Title IX cases well and inform students about these important issues.

“I believe that William Jewell does handle Title 9 cases well. They offer multiple Title 9 trainings, informative platforms for students, and have posters / flyers all around campus. They also have a lot of information about consent and how important informed consent is. Additionally, there are many places you can go to discuss a Title 9 incident around campus. Overall, I believe William Jewell is very proactive in preventing Title 9 incidents, but when they occur they are always more than willing to offer help and support.” [sic]

Said Risdal.

Another student voiced concerns about their Title IX case being mishandled by the school and how the very people who were supposed to help her silenced her.

“Unfortunately I have had experience with it and it was anything but positive. I was made to feel like my situation was unimportant to all of the student life staff except for Kristen Wooldridge. Interim measures were put in place to ‘protect me’ but were never adhered to by my assailant. I repeatedly had to report him breaking the protection measures which he had agreed to and no punitive measures were ever taken against him that had any affect on his behavior/harassment of me. I repeatedly asked the staff to get help for him as I was made to feel that my reports could negatively affect his life and this never happened. Throughout the entire process I felt completely isolated and alone and had to sign paperwork stating that if I spoke about my situation to anyone that I ran the risk of expulsion. Therefore I felt that I couldn’t go to anyone for help/guidance. At one point I was blamed for an occurrence simply because I was told I was in ‘his domain’. Eventually I gave up on getting help from the Title IX Office because their ‘preponderance of evidence’ period went on for months during which I was continuously harassed by my assailant. This individual eventually became violent to myself and another student and left school by choice rather than expulsion. Following his leave from campus I never heard from any member of the Title IX committee nor did I ever receive counseling or support. And after all of this the result of my case was that he was not guilty as I could not prove anything due to there being no security cameras to support my claims.” [sic]

She said.

The student also spoke about feeling uninformed on the progress of her case.

“I was also not kept up to date on what punitive measures they tried to apply and at one point he was removed from the football team for a brief time and i had so many football players approaching me telling me that was too far that I went to the office to have them reverse the only punishment that he ever received. I am also not the only one who has been treated this way by the Title IX Office and we are so grateful that someone was finally able to step up and do something about it. We have felt trapped and not known what to do because the people who are supposed to help us are the ones who silenced us in the first place.” [sic]

She explained.

Ryan Hiatt, junior business administration major, stated that he was surprised by the allegations against Jewell.

“I am surprised by the lawsuit filed against Jewell. It sounds like the situation was handled responsibly by Jewell, in conjunction with the authorities. I think that Jewell is in good hands with the leadership of Dr. MacLeod Walls and company. Jewell is an amazing place with a community of loving, joyous people, unfortunately like any place, sometimes there are bad people who occasionally cause problems in our community. It is all of our responsibility to keep our campus safe for everyone.” [sic]

Said Hiatt.

While Timothy Wise, senior communication major, asserted that issues in the Title IX procedures at Jewell have been widely discussed by students for years.

“In my time here at Jewell, I have had several friends and acquaintances who have had to go through the Title IX process and, having confided in me their experiences, it is hard to believe that the allegations of threatened expulsion are false.” […] “This recent lawsuit that has been filed against the college provides a unique exigency to talk about Title IX at this institution. Throughout my four years here at Jewell, I have always heard about how bad our Title IX work was. When I first came to Jewell, Title IX training was a constant joke, with the First Year orientation videos and lectures all seeming to lack any seriousness. Now, the reality that the college regularly threatens victims who report incidents with expulsion if they discuss the incident is a sad fact of life for the students. When the news of the lawsuit broke, it was a hot topic of conversation on campus, but the conversation was never about how surprised we were that it happened, rather it was a grim recognition that this was bound to get out eventually. […] Of the dozens of students that I have talked to on campus, from seniors to first years, not a single one was surprised to hear that the school threatened to expel someone who had just reported that they had been a victim of rape. Not a single student was surprised.” [sic]

Said Wise.

Another anonymous student who has been through the Title IX process echoed these claims.

“I think that Title IX on Jewell’s campus is a broken system. While I realize the American legal system protects all parties until proven guilty, I feel that there have been many victims that do not get the justice that they deserve. From personal experience, the Title IX process is stressful, traumatizing, and frustrating to all parties involved, but especially for those who were hurt. It should be amended so that everyone, women especially, feel safe at their own school. I am not surprised by this lawsuit. In fact, I think this will lead to even more victims coming forward with similar stories of sexual assault and/or harassment on Jewell’s campus.” [sic]

They said.

Several other students submitted comments to The Hilltop Monitor, many of them suggested that the policies currently enacted at Jewell do little to support victims and lead to unsatisfactory verdicts.

However, several students did report that they feel well informed about the Title IX policies and are shocked by the lawsuit, specifically the claims made about Jewell officials threatening the plaintiff with expulsion.

Suggestions made by students regarding ways to improve the existing policies include appointing a full time Title IX coordinator with a background in law and/or social work, reducing the role of the provost in Title IX investigations and removing students and faculty accused of sexual violence from campus during ongoing investigations.

WHAT CAN STUDENTS DO

For students wondering what they can do in the wake of this lawsuit, the following resources are available.

Jewell’s counseling services are located in Yates-Gill Union room 216 and students may reach out to Tricia Hager at counselingservices@william.jewell.edu for support.

Information about Title IX laws and the rights of students can be found online on the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights page.

Jewell’s official Anti-Harassment Policy and Grievance Procedures can be found here. 

A former Hilltop Monitor article about the Title IX process written in 2014 can be found here.