Posts Tagged Amherst

Potts
By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Three teens have been arrested for raping Audrie Potts, who killed herself in September. Check back in for more on Potts tomorrow from Maya.

Janet Mock is the Racialicious Crush of the Week!

“Girls — and later women — decide not to run for office because they don’t want to be unlikeable, not because they are lacking leadership qualities.”

Swiss bank punks men on “Equal Pay Day.”

Mia McKenzie of Black Girl Dangerous on “accidental” racism.

The Canadian police have reopened Rehtaeh Parsons’ rape case in the wake of her suicide. And Parsons’ dad demands change in a heartbreaking essay.

India’s anti-rape movement: redefining solidarity outside the colonial frame.

Despite protests of his “violently misogynistic ...

Three teens have been arrested for raping Audrie Potts, who killed herself in September. Check back in for more on Potts tomorrow from Maya.

Janet Mock is the Racialicious Crush of the Week!

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SinN2
By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Kick off Sexual Assault Awareness Month with “Surviving in Numbers”

Last October, Mount Holyoke junior Ali Safran returned to her Massachusetts hometown to hang a sign. She’d been assaulted three years earlier in the exact spot where she now posted her story, a statistic about sexual violence, and a call to action.

Now, Safran is providing other students with a platform to hang their own signs for a much bigger audience.

Reflecting on her own frustrations with the criminal justice system after her assault, “I felt that people probably had similar stories,” Safran recalls. In honor of April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, she has launched “Surviving in Numbers,” a Tumblr dedicated to amplifying the voices of campus survivors by publishing pictures of posters like her own. Although reminiscent of projects ...

Last October, Mount Holyoke junior Ali Safran returned to her Massachusetts hometown to hang a sign. She’d been assaulted three years earlier in the exact spot where she now posted her story, a statistic about sexual violence, ...

SAFER Carolina
By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

The radical potential and great disappointment of school sexual misconduct boards

In a development that surprised exactly no one who has been following the recent stories of mishandled sexual violence reports at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has agreed to investigate the school’s policies and practices.

The investigation is prompted by a complaint filed in January by UNC students, alumni, and a former administrator. Although the complaint is not a law suit, and the DOE almost never finds schools “out of compliance”—preferring a collaborative reform process rather than fines—the OCR can refer cases to the Department of Justice if it finds evidence of criminal administrative behavior that a bureaucratic investigation cannot resolve.

The New York Times has a generally ...

In a development that surprised exactly no one who has been following the recent stories of mishandled sexual violence reports at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Department of Education’s Office of ...

Surviving at Amherst
By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Amherst student debunks all the rape myths in the school’s “sexual misconduct” report

In response to former student Angie Epifano’s account of Amherst’s shockingly cruel and inept response to her sexual assault, the school called together a Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct to conduct an investigation of campus policy and practice.  Last week the Committee released its 55-page report.

While the document does criticize Amherst’s approach to sexual violence, it simultaneously absolves both the school and rapists of blame by characterizing assault as an unfortunate accident: “Something goes wrong and a sexual assault does occur,” the report reads.

It Happens Here, an Amherst blog dedicated to discussion of campus sexual violence, has published a response to the report by student activist Dana Bolger. The whole piece is ...

In response to former student Angie Epifano’s account of Amherst’s shockingly cruel and inept response to her sexual assault, the school called together a Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct to conduct an investigation of ...
By Alexandra Brodsky • 12 years ago

Survivors, not victims, at Amherst College

Amherst College’s sexual assault policy has been in the news quite a bit since the publication of a former student’s account of the school’s horrific response to her rape. Yet despite this tragic start to a national discussion, the story of violence on the small Massachusetts campus isn’t just about how terrible assault can be: it’s a story of empowerment that conflicts with our standard narrative of helpless victimhood.

I spoke to two Amherst survivors and student activists (who, full disclosure, are friends of friends—it’s a small campus sexual violence advocacy world): Dana Bolger, who was credited with leading the effort by the New York Times, and a woman, who I’ll call Jill here, who cannot publicly disclose her ...

Amherst College’s sexual assault policy has been in the news quite a bit since the publication of a former student’s account of the school’s horrific response to her rape. Yet despite this tragic start to a ...