Women's safety at USNA

Colleges & Universities Service Academy Parents
1

<p>The BEST prevention is to stay clear of situations that can be risky. This is what I tell my daughter. Of course, a man that violates a woman should just be eliminated from this earth but even if Owens raped her, she provided the OPPORTUNITY. This doesn’t mean it is her fault if she was raped!It never needed to happen.I know that many people might think that this isn’t PC, but my daughter and I accept our responsibility for our personal safety and go out of our way to avoid questionable situations ie running in the dark alone and on deserted pathes etc…and not running around drunk.</p>

2

<p>While I would totally agree with you about not putting yourself at risk, I have to point out that the woman involved was in her room in HER bed. Hardly running around drunk. But your point is valid and something I tell my daughter all the time. In end end you want to avoid and prevent situations like this and keeping a clear mind and some common sense is definitely the way to go.
Tricia</p>

3

<p>Didn’t she invite the fellow into her room?</p>

4

<p>Not sure. That seems to be up for debate in a he said, she said thing. But even so, if they were friends or had a relationship in the past, the rooms are unlocked and people go from room to room all the time. Still doesn’t invite them to rape you (if that did indeed happen). I don’t think we ever will know the complete truth since it is so hard to really know given the situation.<br>
Tricia</p>

5

<p>I agree, women, and even men need to be responsible for keeping themselves safe. It’s like locking your doors at night, locks don’t keep out the professional burglars, but they do keep spur of the moment crimes from happening.</p>

<p>We’ve talked to our daughter about avoiding unsafe situations. She also is a martial artist and knows if she’s ever harmed or threatened to kick a*s and worry about the consequences later. I rather have her have to talk to the cops about how she knee capped some 200 pounder than to a rape counselor.</p>

<p>I think any right thinking person would agree that women don’t bring rape upon themselves but they can prevent it sometimes by being careful.</p>

6

<p>I thought that the female midshipmen can lock their doors. Not sure if this is acurate info.</p>

7

<p>I called my daughter though to confirm but she is on a boat. LOL So, no answer. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/images/smilies/cool.gif[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/images/smilies/cool.gif&lt;/a&gt; I will confirm later but I don’t think so from what I remember.<br>
Tricia</p>

8

<p>I believe at WP all the cadet’s doors are locked after “lights out”. I almost feel sorry for any misguided soul that would think they could sneak into my daughters room for some hanky-panky. She would deal with them in a most direct manner.</p>

9

<p>I can’t help but wonder what the rest of this girl’s academy experience will be like…</p>

10

<p>Hi all. Just confirmed with my daughter mid that they indeed are NOT allowed to lock their doors. Might not change a thing in the case being discussed but it is just an odd thing in my opinion and something that could ward off a LOT of bootie calls in the middle of the night between drunken midshipmen (and protect both parties from doing something stupid that ruins their lives) to allow the mids to lock their doors.<br>
Tricia</p>

11

<p>I received a letter from my cadet and he said they sat through a lecture by a women discussing safety and what to do if you’re put in an uncomfortable situation. It’s good that they make an effort, although making an effort isn’t always enough. Oh, and I was also told that if i’m ever in that sort of situation, just to say that there is a cadet more then willing to kick his a**. It was a good laugh, i’m glad to see that beast hasn’t ruined his sense of humor.</p>

12

<p>How many of you while teaching your child to drive had the following (or some rendition of) conversation:</p>

<p>“Honey you should have (fill in the blank: slowed down, let him in, watched closely, etc) that driver.” </p>

<p>“But Mom, I had the right of way…” </p>

<p>" I know that you had the right of way, BUT apparently they didnt know that and you put yourself in harms way…" </p>

<p>“BUT MOM, I was right…” Proclaimed with much passion </p>

<p>“Well kiddo, yes you were in the right, but you would have been (fill in the blank: crashed, hurt, or dead) all the same!” “Drive your car defensively, watch out for yourself”</p>

<p>I had a similiar conversatio with my plebe, just before she left. Live your life defensively to some degree and dont put yourself in harms way if you can help it. Watch out for how things look and where they could go-EVEN if you were in the right… Sounds like good advice in this case for both parties. </p>

<p>Just this parents opinion…</p>

13

<p>great analogy, sistersunnie</p>

14

<p>It breaks my heart that parents of young ladies have to teach them to be defensive in what should be a God given right to be safe in any situation, particularly in our millitary academies. </p>

<p>Young ladies should never be considered asking for it merely because they are running at night, hiking by themselves or whatever. I just hate this. We are marginalized in our freedom to be ourselves merely because some men are not taught basic respect.</p>

<p>I have two boys. From day one my goal was to teach them to be good husbands. Women will be respected if from day one little boys are taught a sense of reverence towards females.</p>

15

<p>But despite that, we do have to teach our young ladies exactly what you proscribe sistersunnie</p>

16

<p>Not sure of either the validity of the Citadel survey or its applicability to service academies, but it was reported that “nearly 20 percent of female cadets at the school said they had been sexually assaulted since enrolling. In addition, 4 percent of male cadets reported being sexually assaulted since joining the formerly all-male school.”</p>

<p>For the complete article, see</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1539311/20060824/index.jhtml?headlines=true[/url]”>http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1539311/20060824/index.jhtml?headlines=true&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

17

<p>

</p>

<p>Unless my math is off, that comes closer to 23 per cent.
But…</p>

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</p>

<p>How much more than half? One would be inclined to assume that these numbers reflect assaults on a cadet by another cadet - apparently, as least some of these assaults are not being perpetrated by other cadets.</p>

<p>Of course no number of assaults are acceptable, but cadets should not be blamed for the ones they didn’t do.</p>

18

<p>Other questions would be - what percentage of assaults are same sex
- What perecentage of assaults are prepetetrated by a single cadet (i.e. one perp and several or many victims)</p>

19

<p>And another question would be did the assault victim beat the s**t out of the perp, or report the assault immediately.</p>

20

<p>During my entire time at USNA, I never saw one midshipman utter a harsh word to another. Sure, arguments occurred over policies and world events and whatnot, but I never, EVER, saw a harsh word, let alone anything resemble a fight, occur.</p>

<p>Maybe I was lucky, maybe times have changed, or maybe with the advent of the internet small incidents become large ones or previously unreported incidents now get attention. I still hold to the belief that there are few places safer to go to school at than the Service Academies, and while incidents do happen, they are monumentally less frequent than at the average civilian university.</p>

<p>I would advise all parents of prospective or current female midshipmen or cadets to not spend too much time worrying about this stuff.</p>