It IS so disgusting that the adults wouldn’t help. I teach at a state university and last year a student asked me to write a letter of recommendation for her application to a masters program. I asked her to meet with me and talk about her work experiences, interests, academic achievements so I could write a letter. She told me that she was an RA at one of the dorms and when she first started the job as a junior, she found out so many freshman women were being routinely sexually assaulted. It was a pattern where the freshman woman would be out at a party and get drunk; it was pretty commonplace for older guys to take them back to the dorm and sexually assault them. The freshman women didn’t really know because it was their first experience away from home (and far from home), they were drunk and they weren’t sure that saying no and resisting was enough. Rape was an epidemic — not a rare occurrence. My student said that she really saw it when she was an RA, it didn’t hit home for her until a guy who had done this repeatedly brought a freshman woman back to the dorm and my student, the RA had a bad feeling. She was scared but she went into the guys room and he — a senior — was about to rape the girl. She was passed out and unconscious. My student was afraid to help but had to. She yelled at the guy and helped the other young woman out of the room. The victim was unconscious (alcohol poisoning) and the guy didn’t want to call an ambulance because he was afraid of getting in trouble. My student was like “are you crazy!” she got the victim help. After that experience my student started talking to other freshman women. So many had experienced the same thing. My student started organizing information sessions in partnership with the Women’s Resource Center and the Health Center on campus. Over 100 freshmen women attended the first meeting! I was shocked that this was going on on our campus. I knew about all the campus sexual assaults on the news, but had somehow denied that it was happening right there where I worked. I was so amazed by my student and couldn’t believe her courage. I think now of how many young women she has saved from a lifetime of pain. The worst part, she told me, was that the freshman women felt THEY had done something wrong, were embarrassed and lived with the confusion and shame. I am so thankful for her bravery and yours. I think it is so important to address this openly but I know it’s not easy to do.