Link to Article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/william-strampel-larry-nassar-s-msu-boss-hit-sex-charges-n860346
Summary: William Strampel, Michigan State University dean is accused of inappropriately groping and gathering nude pictures of his students. He was arrested and charged with fourth degree criminal sexual misconduct, along with two counts of willful neglect of duty. Strampel violated his statutory duty as a public office by threatening the female students and sexually assaulting them in his office. After the police had a hold of Strampel's computer, they found a large amount of nude photographs and pornographic videos, with evidence of someone trying to delete some of the videos. Dr. Nicole Eastman reported that Strampel had grabbed her butt right in front of his wife, and at the time she didn't report the incident because she thought he would ruin her medical career. After hearing other women come forth and accuse Nassar of sexual harassment, she too felt confident enough to tell her story.
Analysis: This incident was extremely disturbing for me. And I'm disgusted by how people could just get away with sexually harassing so many people. his goes to show that there isn't enough effort being put into creating a safe environment for women. However, with all the sexual harassment cases being reported, I believe that more women will be encouraged to share their stories.
Questions:
1. What are some ways to prevent sexual harassment in schools/universities?
2. Do you think the investigations of sexual harassment cases have been thorough?
7 comments:
I believe that a big part of preventing sexual harassment is to eliminate the stigma around this topic. It is important for victims of sexual harassment to feel supported and heard. Some ways that schools and universities can prevent sexual harassment is to educate students because this would help them understand what exactly is sexual harassment, how to prevent possible actions that are/could lead to it, and what to do if there was a situation. Not only is teaching students how to deal with sexual harassment crucial but offering emotional support through things like therapy or counselors can aid individuals to speak up and create a unified community.
I agree with Kalena that we need to make survivors of harassment more comfortable coming forward and support them emotionally. I would also add that we need to better advertise anonymous tip hotlines at our institutions and police departments. Of course when administrators receive a tip, they should immediately suspend the accused party and launch a thorough investigation of the party's behavior.
To answer the second question, I think that the majority of these investigations are at least thorough enough to warrant further disciplinary action. Unfortunately, it seems like officials consistently fail to act on the results of these investigations.
I think the hardest but most crucial aspect is making sure victims of sexual harassment feel comfortable and confident enough to come forward and to have the notion that they can get justice for the harassment they experienced. This would hopefully deter some harassers as they realize that they shouldn't and can't get away with it. The only way to do this is to validate the words of previous victims of sexual harassment so that future people know they will receive the same support. Additionally, along the lines of what Kalena said, we could maybe hold more conventions for sexual harassment education, making sure people know the difference between yes and no and why certain advances are wrong in various situations. I think some sexual harassment cases have been as thorough as they can been, seeing as evidence tends to be circumstantial or validated through trust of someone's word. Even still, we need to push forward with continuing to validate these victim's experiences and educate people on the definition of sexual harassment.
This is a disgusting abuse of power. I am appalled by these kind of actions but luckily when the cases are heard they are often given the utmost respect, and the assaulter usually faces severe consequences. It seems like in this specific case, justice is being served as he faces charges for sexual assault. The article also states that the university is attempting to revoke his tenure so that they can fire him. The biggest issue, I think, for victims of sexual assault is the fear to come out about it. It is such a sensitive and intimate issue that people really struggle to come forward when they've been abused, especially when their abuser is someone with status over them. Many schools try very hard to prevent this kind of thing already. I know many of the schools I have visited for college tours offer a sort of "panic button" on their campuses. These are put in and immediately alert campus police if their is danger. I think as a nation, we are working very hard to stop this kind of assault.
The first step to stopping sexual harassment and assault in schools would be to create an environment in which girls are encouraged to speak out, have their trauma regarded as valid rather than get dismissed, and stop victim-shaming. Stupid dress policies that try to ensure girls won't "be distracting" are basically saying that if a girl chooses to wear a spaghetti strap tank top one day and is sexually harrassed, she will still be punished for wearing "provocative clothing." Our system is disgusting. There ought to be more accessible ways at Aragon for female students to submit sexual assault accusations to teachers or the administration while keeping their right to remain anonymous.
Similar to what others have brought up, I believe a pivotal aspect to deter people from sexually harassing others is to create an open dialogue surrounding sexual violence, harassment, and the like so that victims know that others have their backs. That way, perpetrators will not feel like they have the sense of power that shields them from receiving punishment. Moreover, we must have a change in the perception of the causes of harassment being a result of the victims’ outward appearance.
In addition to creating a safe environment that foster discussion and support, I believe we should have more class time dedicated to learning what kind of resources are available to us to help us prevent sexual assault and seek justice if it does happen. There are a lot of apps in the market that are dedicated to taking precautions to prevent kidnapping or sexual assault, and there are also other resources available to us that can teach people defense tactics or how to recognized drugged drinks. While it is never the victim's fault for being underprepared to face sexual assault, it doesn't hurt to protect oneself. Furthermore, I think public education can change a lot regarding rape culture by reteaching some values to students regarding sexual assault. Like Diana said, victim shaming is a disgusting practice, but the acceptability of that kind of behavior is often due to the culture that education and other influencing factors support. Instead of dress-coding female students for being "too scandalous" and a "distraction" (which encourages victim-blaming behavior), students should be taught respect for each other and for personal boundaries, and punished for violations of those standards instead.
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