By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
One in five women on college campuses have been sexually assaulted.
Those numbers got a voice Thursday when about 200 students gathered in front of the student union at Bowling Green State University to protest what they said was the lack of response to instances of rape.
They chanted and carried homemade signs.
Katie Chicotel places her sign outside President Mary Ellen Mazey’s office.
One after another, people who had been assaulted stepped into the circle, picked up with megaphone and told their stories. Some happened before the speakers had come to BGSU. Some happened here. Others offered words of support, and expressions of anger.
Felita Guyton said she was assaulted in October 2015. She dropped the case, she said, when it was clear it would not be pursued.
She told those gathered that she felt like the university thinks the careers of those accused are more important than those they have victimized.
No one, she said, should be made to feel their body is not their own, or “have an out-of-body experience as they are being attacked.”
Speaking out was difficult, Guyton said later. She wasn’t sure she could do it. But in the end it was something that had to be said. “I needed to do it now.”
The protest was sparked by a post on Facebook by first year student Chelsea Halm expressing dissatisfaction with the way her complaint was handled by the university.
Her post prompted a number of comments, including from Allie Dyer who suggested the rally. Halm attended the rally, but did not speak. She said she was not involved in organizing it.
Afterward, Halm said, that initially she understood that the university could not pursue the matter. “I had no actual proof,” she said. “I didn’t go to the hospital.”
But, she said: “When he continued harassing me, and they didn’t do anything that was ridiculous.”
Halm decided to speak out.
“I was happy that there were a lot of people who shared their stories and spoke out against the school.”
Halm said she was planning to take “time off to heal,” and then she will enroll in another college to study nursing.
She is contemplating further action against BGSU. “There are further steps I am taking, but I can’t really comment on them.”
Jacqueline Adams, a PhD student in American Culture Studies, said she is putting together legal action under federal Title IX legislation. She has several women who have been assaulted at BGSU who have already signed on as complainants.
Adams said she approached the dean of student’s office earlier to discuss changes in their procedures.
When someone reports, for example, they should be able to ask for someone of a gender identity they are comfortable with. Now they hear back from a male.
She also asked that the board that oversees the reporting process include one person identified as a victim of sexual assault.
Adams is herself a victim. She was assaulted 13 years ago while at the University of Kentucky. It took her 10 years to finally speak about the experience.
She admires those who stepped forward at the rally.
Dyer called for harsher discipline for those accused of sexual assault. “There are a lot of victims out there whose rapists are still on campus,” she said. “The university needs to expel them.”
Asked if they should be considered innocent until proven guilty, Dyer said that the incidence of false reporting is so low, 2 percent, that “I will always believe victim.”
She added, “we need to have full investigations.”
The university needs to improve the way they handle these cases, and the way they teach students about the issue.
“Women don’t feel safe,” she said. “It’s ridiculous sexual assault is still going on on campus.”
Transgender and others in the LBGT community also feel unsafe, she added.
Dyer said she was proud of the students who came out. They represented people “from all backgrounds.”
“We need to meet with (President Mary Ellen) Mazey and the deans of the colleges to revise the policies. We need dialogues.” She said she attended two of the many dialogues Mazey and other administrators had throughout campus in the past few months. Sexual assault did not come up in those two sessions, Dyer said. More dialogues focused on this issue are needed.
The protestors took the demonstration to McFall Center and up to the second floor, outside Mazey’s office. They stopped at the door and deposited their signs outside before leaving the building.
Acting BGSU Police Chief Mike Campbell said: “If we have students who are not feeling safe that’s something we need to address. If a victim of a crime comes forward we need investigate thoroughly. … These are criminal acts. If those are occurring, we need to investigate and hold people accountable.”
It wasn’t only students involved in the protest. Bev Chicotel and her daughter, Katie Chicotel, had come from Findlay to show their support. They are a Falcon family. Bev Chicotel said her husband and brother are also graduates from BGSU, and her son is currently a student.
Bev Chicotel said she wasn’t aware how bad the problem had become until she saw Halm’s post and then the many others who reported being assaulted. Many of the victims ended leaving campus while their assailants remained.
Katie Chicotel, a 2014 graduate, said that cases seemed to be handled much better when she was here. There seemed to be a change the next year.
They also raised the issue that the person accused of attacking Halm had been expelled from another school for sexual misconduct.
If people can be made aware of sexual predators in their neighborhoods, the mother said, shouldn’t they have that information about people living down the hall?
In a statement to the campus community later in the day, Mazey stated that BGSU has learned that the accused student was in fact suspended from Ohio University and did not disclose that information as required when he applied to BGSU.
James Sabin, spokesperson for OU, said that the student was suspended for “sexual misconduct, stalking, and relationship violence: sexual harassment by hostile environment.”
In the statement, Mazey acknowledged the students’ dissatisfaction about the handling of sexual assault cases.
“I understand that these incidents were traumatic for those involved, and we respect the courage it took to report these cases,” she wrote.
She added: “It is important to remember that BGSU has an obligation to ensure that everyone in these processes – including individuals accused of sexual assault –is treated fairly. The investigations into the incidents raised were thorough and conducted in a professional, courteous and empathetic manner.”
She promised further work on the matter. “We will continue to work with campus and community organizations on efforts to address sexual assault on our campuses and better help us all live up to our core value of respect for one another.”
These sentiments were echoed in a university press release about the protests.
