I live in Minnesota. The University of Minnesota has been in the news recently because it suspended ten football players over an incident that happened in September of this year. Apparently another female college student was raped and sexually assaulted by multiple members of the Gophers football team at a party. She reported the incident to police. The Minneapolis police did not press charges nor did the Hennepin County prosecutors. The University of Minnesota’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action did an investigation and it concluded that these men did do something wrong. So much so, in fact, that at least one person was expelled from the U of M. I will say that I really didn't get into this story much until an anonymous person release the 80 page document that the EOAA had written up. Why? Because until then, they wouldn't even release if the sexual assault charge in September was the reason for the suspension, let alone what the allegations were. Oh yeah, and the rest of the football team is now boycotting all practices and games in a show of solidarity. 

Oh, man, do I have a lot to say about that one. First, this story has been plastered all over the papers and evening news for weeks now. I see their faces everyday. Yet, I largely ignored the story. Then I heard the whole team was "boycotting" practice and games. Are you kidding me? Every single player that is there on scholarship that is not participating in practice and games as scheduled gets his scholarship pulled. Done. Next, anyone not showing up is off the team. We forfeit the season and they do not get to try out next year. Actions have consequences, folks. If this were your job, you would be fired. But I lost it when the 80 page investigative report came out. I read it. The whole disgusting thing. The first paragraph I was like "well, I can understand where the confusion is if it was consensual or not." But then I kept going and I thought, "what the hell is happening?!" The U of M got statements, pictures, texts, and videos from evidence provided by the Minneapolis Police Department. How were charges not pressed against these men? That is what I want to know.

Do you know that 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted while in college? More than 90% of sexual assaults that happen in college go unreported. 63.3% of men at one university who self-reported

acts qualifying as rape or attempted rape admitted to committing repeat rapes. 50% of sexual assaults happen in August, September, and October. And 8 out of 10 victims of sexual assault know their perpetrators. Do any of those statistics shock you? Do they scare you? I think about a lot of things when I hear them. The first thing I think about is my daughter. There is so much more in this world I have to prepare and protect her for. How do you teach a 5 year old that she can do anything she wants and to be fearless while knowing there are people out there that want to hurt her?