“Swimmer’s Death Casts Light on Campus Sex Assaults” By ALAN
SCHER ZAGIER Associated Press
In his State of the Union address a
few weeks back, the President discussed concerns over college campus safety,
especially in regards to sexual assault. This week, in a letter you probably
received in your campus email account, our own University President alluded to
an incident which took place at the University of Missouri Columbia. (An
excerpt from the letter can be seen above) Since I was unfamiliar with the incident
he was referring to I looked up some news articles concerning the student. I
have a link above to the article I choose to share with the class which looks
at her situation in light of concerns across the nation about campus security.
I also have several links below to articles discussing the University’s
response and a little more about the situation. As President Obama stated,
sexual assault on college campuses truly is a “public health epidemic.”
To provide some background, as it
stands right now, if a student at a University discloses sexual assault to a
mental health/medical professional, the professional is bound by privacy laws
to follow the wishes of the individual, meaning that they will not report the
incident if the individual does not wish to report it. However, if the incident
is disclosed to non-medical campus officials, they are required to report it
and to launch an investigation under the Title XI Act. (Link to this act below).
In the situation UM-Columbia, the student is reported to have been sexually
assaulted in 2010 and while she did disclose the assault to medical/mental
health professionals, she did not want to report it to authorities. In the year
after the assault her mental health began to decline and she committed suicide.
Questions have been raised as to whether or not an investigation should have
been launched sooner after a report by ESPN (link at bottom of page) was
released on January 26th. The University reports they reached out to the
student’s parents after learning of the incident in order to get more
information, but they never responded, indicating that they were not interested
in having the incident investigated. The University has now asked Columbia
police to investigate and is asking a third party to come in and investigate
how the University handled the situation.
The whole tragic situations raises
questions about how we can better both prevent
sexual assault on campuses and what we can do to provide support and advocacy for those who have
been victims. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts about how we can do this
better as a community. I am also interested to hear your thoughts on the
University’s handling of the matter.
EXCERPT FROM
LETTER SENT OUT TO STUDENTS THIS WEEK FROM UM PRESIDENT:
“We came together at our Columbia campus during a time of
some difficult reflection, due to the story of Sasha Menu Courey. As you may
have heard, Sasha was a former MU student-athlete suffering from mental illness
who may have been the victim of sexual assault while at the university. She
tragically committed suicide in 2011, and our thoughts and prayers continue to
go out to her family, friends and teammates.
Sasha’s heartbreaking story illustrates that our four
campuses are not immune from the societal problems of sexual assault and mental
illness. We are determined to learn from her experience, and improve upon the
way we serve people on our campuses who have been victims of sexual assault or
have mental health issues. As such, last week the board approved the hiring of
an outside, independent counsel to investigate the circumstances surrounding
Sasha’s time at the university. At the same time, I have directed our
chancellors to lead comprehensive reviews of their respective campuses’
policies and procedures regarding education and prevention of sexual assault,
and mental health service availability.
Should the independent counsel’s report, or our chancellors’
reviews, uncover areas of deficiency in how our campuses address these issues,
I will direct UM System resources, including increased funding as needed, to
the campuses to ensure we are providing these services in an appropriate
manner. Even one sexual assault incident is too many.”
St. Louis Post Dispatch Article from 1.30.14 : “UM
president: 'This can never happen again'” http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/um-president-this-can-never-happen-again/article_42ce29ae-5eea-5d57-ad8f-bf9ca37218b4.html
Huffington Post Article from 1.29.14 “University of Missouri
Orders Investigation of Response to Rape” : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/university-of-missouri-rape_n_4691193.html
ESPN Story published 1.26.14 which sparked debate http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10323102/university-missouri-officials-did-not-pursue-rape-case-lines-investigation-finds
For information on Title XI:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html
Nathan Tebo - February 7th 2014
ReplyDeleteI really think this review hit home as to the drastic need for policy reform within the university system. Investigations should specifically look at if clinicians that were involved in her mental health care specifically addressed or asked her if she was having thoughts of suicide related to the trauma that she had endured. Suicide awareness and prevention classes taught at the undergraduate level might allow for students to have a more comprehensive understanding about suicide warning signs and be able to provide support and recognize those warning signs when they experience them in real life situations. With suicide being, "the 10th leading cause of death in the United States," (Center for Disease Control, 2012) this is also an epidemic with multiple contributing causes including sexual assault or any trauma for that matter. Awareness and education about suicide is something that might not only benefit sexual assault survivors but anyone suffering from mental illness.
Overall the investigation component I think was a sound response by the university but I think education and awareness not only about sexual assault but about suicide as well should be included to reduce taboos regarding discussing suicide and to make individuals experiencing those thoughts more comfortable with coming forward about those feelings.
I have more questions than answers after reading the numerous articles. It also affected me personally, because my nephew began to show signs of mental illness during his freshman year of college and he did not recognize what was happening to him. His parents simply thought he was experiencing the normal stresses of adjusting to living away from home and college. Thankfully, he reported to work as a camp counselor for troubled teens and within 36 hours a counselor with extensive experience in mental illness recognized warning signs and most likely prevented suicide. Is suicide a common response to an undiagnosed mental illness? I agree with Nathan that education is needed and recommend a half day seminar be completed during freshman orientation, with accountability for the lecture content. I recently learned that the onset of mental illness most frequently occurs between the ages of 18 to 20, which correspond to the time young people leave home and start learning how to care for their own health and medical needs. While reading, I wondered what University policies are in place for scholarship recipients when illness or trauma occurs (beyond their control--not as a result of drugs) during the course of their college career? What statistical information exists about the prevalence of illness, college drop-outs, and loss of scholarships or even money from uncompleted classes? Is there a no penalty policy which allows students to return the next semester to complete classes that were interrupted due to severe illnesses or injuries without having to financially incur payments again for those classes?
ReplyDeleteThank you Lindsay for your summary on this article. I remember this incident and I remember talking to my daughters about it. With national statistics indicating that one in five women are assaulted during college, this is a serious issue. In January a report from the White House Council on Women and Girls cited a 2011 national research survey that found twenty percent of women reported being victims. While I'm saddened for that family, the death of Sasha Menu Courey has created an opportunity for students across the country to talk about rape on college campuses.
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