The start of the fall semester through Thanksgiving break is known as The Red Zone, where more than 50% of sexual assaults happen. But college students are also at a heightened risk for other forms of abuse, such as intimate partner violence, throughout the academic year.
PublicSource spent six months speaking with survivors, advocates, lawyers, police and university officials to investigate the prevalence of sexual violence on Pittsburgh college campuses and its effects. Here's what we found.
Assaulted by a friend. Coerced with alcohol. Left confused and ashamed. One survivor is only beginning to process, while another is “nowhere near being healed.”
Today, we share the stories of Pittsburgh students and a recent graduate who spoke about their experiences of sexual violence or consent violations and what came after. The stories reveal barriers to support and healing and illustrate challenges in awareness among college peers. Read their stories.
“I gave them quite a testimony. Like it took a lot for me to do that,” said one survivor. “And then when it came down to it, they kind of just took all that information and didn’t do anything to help me.
College students, like their institutions, know the number of sexual assaults and violence captured in data often don’t mirror reality. At Chatham University, University of Pittsburgh and Point Park University, students are organizing marches, educating peers or consent and building community. Who are the student advocates working to prevent sexual violence? Read about them.
Unfair, wasteful and potentially illegal? Not everyone is cheering Biden’s debt relief plan. Republicans have criticized the plan. And for some borrowers, the cash burden still hangs overhead, even with some forgiveness. Read the story.
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