This morning, Vanessa Rubin, a whiny little freshman, opined about Brown’s newest hire: a sexual assault counselor. It reads like a valley girl complaining. “Like, some boys, like chased me, and I was like scared. Okay? So, like I called the police. And like that’s why we need a person to like mediate sexual assault cases.” As if her stupid story were somehow a convincing syllogism for why we should welcome the newest employee.
Peruse through old issues of the BDH (especially those regarding Adam Lack) and see how Brown handles sexual assault cases. At Brown, the accused has no rights. Even now, I imagine, there are a number of sexual assault cases that are denying your fellow students the due process that they deserve when they are accused of sexual assault. But I doubt Vanessa thinks that’s a good reason for not having this sexual assault counselor.
To be honest, the reason I think this is a terrible idea is because of people like Vanessa. You see, Vanessa called DPS because she thought some men were chasing her. At Brown (if those men were students), those men would have been taken in by DPS, prosecuted by the deans, and possibly kicked out of school all because she “thought” they were a danger. Frankly, Bastian ‘89 was right to criticize Brown’s newest staffer. Brown needs to get out of the industry of mediating sexual assault cases. And to those who are accused of sexual assault cases at Brown, you need to know that you have the same rights of any accuser.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not on the side of rapists. But I do believe that as an American institution, we ought to put into practice that important principle: innocent until proven guilty. Brown students purport to be all about human rights. Well, we can’t go on a lynching raid at the word of some accuser (something Brown students are known to do e.g. Chipalo Street racist cop incident); we can’t treat the accused as less than human.
I do like the valley girl reference. That made me laugh.