Nick Echard, Contributing Writer
One month ago, my former high school was under investigation for sexual misconduct.
According to a CBS6 article, a number of male students had a group chat in which they circulated inappropriate pictures of female students. These photos were non-consensual and allegedly featured pictures of girls ranging from eighth to 12th grade.
Trinity Episcopal School is no stranger to sexual assault committed by its students on and off campus. One night in 2021 when I went to pick up a group of mutual friends from a party that my classmates were hosting, one girl was in tears after she was taken to the woods behind the house party and assaulted.
Two more of my classmates would be assaulted in the coming semesters. The administration at my school sat idle until all three of these classmates left the school, whilst only one of their assaulters was expelled.
Since “Jane Doe,” the victim of the Cornell Seven incident, spoke out about her assault, Cornell University alumni going all the way back to the ’70s have come forward about their own experiences with assault on campus.
The “No-Confidence” resolution group is a community at Cornell that is speaking out about the need for change on campus. The group’s leader, Paul Ortiz, spoke with News Nation about the outpouring of horror stories on Cornell’s campus.
“The key part of every one of these stories is that they felt, and they’re all women, and they felt afraid to come forward because the students that came forward were treated with a horrific lack of respect by the institution,” Ortiz stated. “The concern of Cornell was, make sure that we don’t damage the reputation of the young man because he’s a member of an affluent fraternity and this could ruin his life.”
Ortiz stated that staff may be reluctant to come forward about sexual assault incidents on campus out of fear of being fired. Ortiz referred to a “culture of fear” on the Cornell campus — but this culture is not exclusive to Cornell.
The culture of fear is in institutions such as Trinity, that are run more like businesses than schools, thus prioritizing public perception over justice. This culture is in sports programs, universities, fraternities, high schools and businesses.
Since CBS6 released the article detailing the boys’ group chat, Trinity alumni have also come forward to speak about their experiences with sexual violence at the school.
In an article published by ABC 8, a Trinity alumna from the class of 2021 spoke out about their experiences during their time at Trinity. “There was a list found in the library of every single girl in our grade that was ranked, you know, and then the boys came up to us and said, you know, ‘We want… we wish we could rape you.’ You know, ‘We wish we could get our hands on you, but we can’t,’” the alumna stated.
According to The Richmonder, a Trinity student named Isabel stated that her experience at the school was ruined in eighth grade after an explicit video of her and a third-year was non-consensually spread, making her feel isolated. She stated she was labeled by boys at the school as someone willing to sexually exploit themselves, and thus faced frequent harassment. Despite her complaints to the school, nothing substantial was done.
“There’s this very popular idea that, ‘Oh, we don’t want to ruin someone’s life with that,’ like labeling them as this or that,” Isabel stated. “So I have to be a liar? What about my life?”
In the case of the Cornell Seven, “justice” was delivered in the form of expulsions and written essays. As for the victims at Trinity, anything resembling justice was much more scarce.
Justice for sexual violence is not just in the punishment. To ensure that sexual violence and the taboo surrounding it is ended, a cultural change must occur.
The language surrounding sexual assault victims must change: Any words or phrases that put weight or blame on the victims have no place in discussions surrounding sexual violence. Questioning what the victim was wearing, how late they were out or who they were with only shifts blame from the perpetrator to the victim. In addition, tighter protections for victims of sexual assault are necessary to encourage speaking out about sexual violence.