More of the Mindset We Face

[Subdeacon Joe]

You think your drunk college-age daughters are bad with their iPhones? Imagine them with guns.

 

 

Since my 17-year-old daughter left for college last fall, campus rape has been on my mind. According to a study in the Journal of American College Health, women in college are at their highest risk for rape during their first semester.

Six months later, my daughter has not been sexually assaulted.

But she has put herself in harm’s way. How do I know? I’ve looked at her iPhone.

My daughter dropped her first iPhone outside an off-campus party, the kind of sports-related, senior-sponsored event that is infamously associated with sexual assault. When the cops showed up, she stood frozen until someone grabbed her hand and pulled her into the woods. As she ran from the police with her friends, her phone fell into a snow bank and was never seen again.

We bought her a replacement, a highly desirable 5s that she promised to guard with her life. Weeks later, after another party, my “slightly drunk” daughter tumbled down some stairs. She wasn’t injured, but the iPhone screen was cracked.

Her lost cellphone came to mind again when the New York Times reported that legislators in 10 states are working on bills that would make it easier to carry guns on college campuses. The lawmakers argue that putting guns in the hands of college women will prevent rape and make campuses safer for all students.

That claim reveals the legislators’ ignorance of the circumstances around college sexual assault, which typically occurs between people who know each other, and is often complicated by alcohol and drugs. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 80 percent of students drink regularly in college, and more than half of them binge drink at least once a month. Every year, the institute reports, 97,000 students ages 18 to 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

 

She can't tell a cell phone from a gun and assumes that no one else can either.