No one ever wakes up in the morning and says “ah, I can’t wait to get to school and be assaulted.”
So why should we allow the campus of Cerritos College to be an accessible setting for such acts?
Individuals attend a school in order to become educated, not molested.
With the recent increase of sexual harassment and fondling incidents, students are on high alert here which is rational due to the low visibility and lighting available on campus.
Students do take the recommended preventive measures such as walking in groups at night and carrying mace but how are they able to defend themselves in high-risk areas such as locker rooms, restrooms and even the school parking lots?
What could be done in order to ensure the decrease in sexual assault incidents? What can the student body do to ensure a safe learning environment?
That is a question students of Cerritos College should be taking into consideration.
What can the student body do to ensure a safe learning environment?
Now, it is not being advocated that students put on a cape and skin tight leather in a feeble attempt to ward off the “bad guys”.
Vigilantism is not being advocated.
What is being advocated is that students should use the resources already available to them.
Use their voices to make a difference, use their voices to invoke such action such as more cadet foot patrol or blue lights by the locker rooms, library, the far side of campus and any other high risk areas.
No student, or any individual should fear coming to school. No one should have to worry about his privacy or intimacy being violated, especially in an setting which one should naturally feel safe in.
Students must speak up and voice their concerns, they must bring there concerns to the ears of the campus police and campus president, Dr. Fierro.
It is easy for a voice to be heard if it is amplified.
Sexual assault, harassment, rape and molestation are not matters that should be taken tenderly in its prevention.
Nobody wants to hear that their mother, sister, brother, friend or significant other has become a victim of assault.
Violation can only take a few moments but it leaves a lasting impression, possibly resulting in trauma, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, unwanted pregnancy or contraction of an STI.
Half the time victims never come forward because of fear of victim blaming or that they will be attacked again or even killed.
So no one is entirely sure of the number of forced sexual based incidents have occurred on this campus in this semester alone.
Let’s be that voice for those who can’t speak.
Students must rally together and advocate for a safer campus, advocate for more police presence, advocate for more blue lights and especially advocate for brighter lighting.
Voice concern during President’s Hour or Coffee with a Cop, perfect platforms in order to bring light to a rising situation that must be resolved.
Become an advocate for your fellow students, add a touch of compassion to our campus.
Let Cerritos College be known for its outstanding students, not for its penchant for fondling.
Band together, speak out and make Cerritos College a safe and worry-free place for students and faculty to learn and teach safely, without the fear of being violated, without the fear of becoming a victim, without the fear of becoming just another statistic in the already hefty on-campus crime report.
