Campus Rapes: SurvJustice Speaks Out

By Victoria Robertson on February 19, 2017

Campus rapes are shockingly high, and it feels as if little is being done to change this fact. And in many ways, very little is being done.

However, there’s one individual that truly is making a difference, and it’s time that people know her name and feel safer knowing she’s out there serving your rights.

Laura Dunn runs SurvJustice. For those of you unfamiliar with the nonprofit, it has conducted federal investigations in a minimum of 120 schools across the country.

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According to Dunn in an article on Buzzfeed, “I’m always mad that we’re not bigger. I want to be Gloria Allred big. People know if your civil rights get violated, you go to the ACLU. I want people to know if you get raped, you go to SurvJustice.”

The political realm has been saturated with sexual violence and assault over the past few years, including the allegations against Bill Cosby, Penn State and even our current President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Of course, Trump’s election brought along with it more questions, perhaps the most potent being, “if he can do it, who can’t?”

This is one of the biggest fears for Dunn, and for many others across the country. With Barack Obama and Joe Biden in office, campus rapes were being dealt with, albeit slowly, but there was progress. With the election of a man in the midst of sexual assault allegations, the obvious concern was that such initiatives would cease to matter.

According to Dunn, “I did not picture any alternative to Hillary winning. So I was surprised and it did cause some panic — everything I’ve spent years working on already may get pushed back. It was definitely something I personally mourned.”

But she persevered, and SurvJustice (which began back in 2014) is still here to provide legal assistance to both men and women that are victims of sexual assault on college campuses.

Many, however, don’t see the urgency in the issue.

So let’s put this into perspective: about a quarter of all women will experience sexual assault in some way, shape or form, by the time that they graduate from college. These results come from decades of studies, and they’re all equally shocking.

And this is an issue personal to Dunn, as she reports being raped at the age of 19. And she faced the same blame that many victims do (which is a large reason most rapes go unreported).

According to Dunn, her conservative parents, “had this idea I had brought shame on the family.” Unlike most others, however, she didn’t listen. She reported the incident.

However, (and this is another big reason rapes go unreported) the men claimed that the sex was consensual, and the police never charged them, and the school never disciplined them.

After nine months, the case was dropped. According to Dunn, “I thought that was it.”

Of course, it wasn’t — and Dunn’s experiences were publicized in order to display what the education system looks like in light of such incidents.

And under the Obama administration, campus assaults were finally called out.

In Obama’s words, “This is not your fight alone. You are not alone, and we have your back.”

Biden took this same stance in saying, “Our culture still asks the wrong questions … Never — get this straight — never is it appropriate for a woman to ask, ‘What did I do?’”

Strong words, and Dunn felt the same.

“I’m so in awe that the two most powerful men in our entire country were saying everything I wish I heard when I was suffering alone.”

Apparently, after her own assault, her father asked her, “What were you wearing?”

This is a question all too often asked of sexual assault victims.

Even the common phrase “no means no” wasn’t enough. So now, it has been changed to “only yes means yes,” as victims shouldn’t be expected to scream out no in order for their assailant to stop.

According to Gloria Allred:

“When I was their age, I didn’t know I had any rights, or I didn’t have any rights — or both. We had no expectation we’d be treated fairly. If anything we had an unconscious expectation of, well, that’s the way the world is, we’re going to get raped and nobody’s going to do much about it. But now there’s a very different expectation among young people, and I’m glad about that.”

Of course, this has shifted a bit given the new regime within the U.S.

According to Rosenthal:

“What I’m so distressed about is that we’ve been working now for a number of years very persistently to change the culture. Now we have a president who believes in attitudes and behaviors, who embodies exactly what we’ve been trying to change. So it’s that, it’s the big picture. What does that mean for our country?”

I’ll tell you what it doesn’t have to mean:

 1. It doesn’t have to mean that you agree with the current administration

2. It doesn’t have to mean that rape is now “okay”

3. It doesn’t have to mean that sexual assault is now “okay”

4. It doesn’t have to mean anything

What matters is that people continue to advocate for the cause — that people understand such actions are wrong, no matter who condones them.

That’s exactly the attitude Dunn is taking.

In her own words, “I received my justice. Now it is my turn to help others achieve it.”

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