Trump’s lewd remarks concern campuses fighting sex assault
ASSOCIATED PRESS
University of Richmond junior and sexual assault survivor, Whitney Ralston, spoke during an Oct. 10 interview in Richmond, Va. Ralston, who says she was sexually assaulted by a classmate at the Richmond school, said Donald Trump’s vulgar remarks that were caught on videotape and his that it was “locker room” talk normalizes violence against women.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbia University graduate student Savannah Badalich led a Breakthrough Campus Catalyst Training with student activists at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., for Sexual Assault Awareness Month on April 8. When news broke that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had bragged of groping women, and then trivialized it as “locker room talk,” it felt to some students like a repudiation of their efforts.
NEW LONDON, Conn. » At Connecticut College, as at a growing number of campuses nationwide, students are encouraged to speak up if they hear remarks celebrating or condoning sexual aggression against women. In one training scenario, male students ask a peer if he really means it when he boasts of such conduct.
So when news broke that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had bragged of groping women and then trivialized it as “locker room talk,” it felt to some students like a repudiation of their efforts.
“It’s shocking that someone of that status thinks that that’s OK,” said Greg Liautaud, a senior who works with the college’s sexual assault prevention office. “It does make the work harder, because our goal here is to shift culture.”
Trump’s caught-on-tape remarks about kissing women and grabbing their genitals are resonating deeply on campuses across the U.S. where sexual assault has been a long-standing problem. Many worried the comments, coupled with an apology that diminished their severity, could hinder efforts to educate youth when society too often brushes off abusive behavior as “boys being boys” or puts the blame on the victim.
At Connecticut College, the director of sexual violence prevention said the presidential contender’s remarks likely would become fodder for small group discussions, as happened after a videotape surfaced of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice hitting his fiancee.
“I hope that it doesn’t set us back,” Darcie Folsom said. “I hope it pushes us forward everywhere to know more work needs to be done.”
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The federal government, citing estimates that 1 in 5 women has been sexually assaulted while in college, has stepped up pressure on higher education institutions to improve their response to allegations of assault. More than 200 schools are under sexual violence investigations by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ; noncompliance could lead to loss of federal funding.
Other institutions have faced lawsuits by women claiming officials were indifferent or hostile when complaints were lodged. The University of Connecticut, for example, settled for $1.3 million with five students, including one who alleged a campus police officer told her “women have to just stop spreading their legs like peanut butter” or rape will keep happening.
Stanford University professor Michelle Dauber said Trump’s comments worsen the problem by serving to minimize sexual assault. Dauber is pushing a recall campaign of the judge who sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a woman outside a fraternity house — a penalty widely criticized as too lenient. Turner was released last month after serving half that time.
“The rage you are seeing from women is not solely or even principally directed at Trump,” Dauber said. “It is at the institutions and leaders who are failing to take action and hold him accountable. … Women are sick and tired. Enough is enough.”
Alison Kiss, executive director of the Clery Center for Security On Campus, hopes that the outrage turns into a “teachable moment” that bolsters on-campus efforts to combat assault and support survivors. “Talking about it as no big deal can normalize the behavior. We have to create a culture where victims and survivors are comfortable coming forward, and on a lot of campuses that hasn’t happened.”
That issue resonates deeply with Savannah Badalich. She’s a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, and works part time with other colleges to increase awareness about sexual assault. At those sessions, she shares her personal story about being sexually assaulted during her sophomore year at UCLA and being too timid to report the incident.
“If the potential president of the U.S. is saying this is OK, what’s to say that sexual violence is going to be taken seriously and that survivors are going to be treated with any respect?” she said.
Whitney Ralston, a University of Richmond junior who says she was raped, physically abused and stalked by a classmate, has been heartened by the strong negative reaction to Trump’s comments. “This is a problem that needs to be addressed, and you can’t just keep brushing it off as boys will be boys.”
Ralston’s alleged attacker accepted responsibility for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policy, was ordered to stay away from her and told that further violations would result in suspension or expulsion. Ralston has filed a complaint with the DOE accusing the university of mishandling the case. Federal investigators are already looking into two other cases at the school for possible violations of Title IX, a broad statute that prohibits gender discrimination as well as sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is also under federal investigation for its alleged mishandling of sexual assaults on campus, and the Trump furor reverberated across the campus this week, as students and faculty prepared to mark Relationship Violence Awareness Month. A complaint filed in August with the DOE accuses school officials of discouraging one sex assault victim from going to the police and said school investigators failed to get photographs documenting her injuries.
Shira Malka Devorah, a 20-year-old senior who works at the UMBC Women’s Center, has refrained from sharing Trump’s comments on social media because she didn’t want to upset assault survivors. But she was horrified by the candidate’s comments, and even more so his justification that they were merely locker room banter.
“Saying that it’s OK to talk about things like this with your buddies and joke about hurting women and controlling women’s bodies, it’s reinforcing the notion that you have power over women … that they’re not human beings,” Devorah said.
At Connecticut College, which has about 1,900 students, efforts have grown in recent years to fight sexual assault. Freshmen attend a mandatory orientation session on preventing sexual violence, speakers address the topic at panels for prospective students, and some 30 student volunteers promote a program that encourages students to see it as a collective responsibility to stop sexual assault. One of the overall aims is to teach people how and when to intervene through videos, role-playing and other exercises.
Trump’s remarks were on the minds of many students this week as guides led small groups on tours around the picturesque campus on the Thames River.
“It undermines the progress that we’ve made,” said junior Maggie Corey. “I think what he said only perpetuates the rape culture.”
Associated Press writers Juliet Linderman in Baltimore, Alanna Durkin Richer in Richmond, Virginia, and Paul Elias in San Francisco contributed to this report. Crary reported from New York.
49 responses to “Trump’s lewd remarks concern campuses fighting sex assault”
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Mr. Trump, in the now famous recording, was talking about his history of felony sexual assault of women. He dismisses this as “locker room talk’ as do his sad followers, but that’s obviously not true. Men in locker rooms do not brag about criminal activity involving sexual assault.
Normalizing that kind of talk is naturally concerning to people who are trying to reduce the incidence of sexual assault.
Thankfully, Mr. Trump is heading toward a historic loss in November. Good riddance to him.
IRT Klastri, since Congress passed Sen. Johnson’s 1954 Amendment to silence Pastors and Churches from speaking out on bad moral behavior, the Country has been moving Left to where we are today. This law took away the 1st Amendment Right of Pastors and Churches to condemn talk and actions such as committed by Mr. Trump and President Clinton and his wife. Also, took away the political discussions by elected politicians on abortion, same-sex marriage, adultery, sexual assault, spouse and children abuse, etc. What do you think, do we work together to repeal the 1954 Amendment giving back the voice of Pastors and Churches?
You are wrong, that is not what the IRC states. It prevents 501c3 from endorsing candidates, it does not prevent churches from ‘speaking out on bad moral behavior.’ It also did not take ‘away the political discussions by elected politicians.’
IRT Advertiser1, agree with your post, and the IRS added the following creating the question and pause by the Pastors and Churches who could lose their Not-For-Tax Exemption 501(c)3.
IRS, “On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.”
You are lying, obviously, about what that 1954 amendment says and did. Are you just unable to write truthfully?
The law did no such thing. No one would suggest, or did suggest, anything like what you wrote. Lying doesn’t help your case.
IRT Klastri, therefore, a Pastor having a voter education session with the topic to discuss homosexuality and same-sex marriage with the congregation. The Pastor reads passages from the Bible that rejects homosexuality and same-sex marriage and without naming the political candidate. Yet, the entire congregation knows that Mr. Trump is in opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The discussion places the Pastor in conflict with the description of the tax code (a) and without identifying the candidate.
You’re lying again. There is nothing whatever in the law or the tax code that regulates speech that way. Nothing. Pastors say things like that all the time and they are completely free to do that. Obviously.
Are you unable to control yourself with regard to your fabrications?
Klastri, Trump has been a celebrity for many years and has very deep pockets. If Trump was talking about his “history of felon sexual assault of women” as you claim, why have we not heard one word from any of his victims hoping to cash in on their notoriety?
Watch the news tonight. You’ll see plenty.
And read your own post again. A few times. Can you see that you think the only reason that someone would report a criminal assault is to “cash in?” That’s why a woman would report a crime? You’re as bad as he is.
You are definitely a Trump supporter. I’m comforted that Mr. Trump is being humiliated and will lose the election in a landslide.
Klastri, no worries, as he (Ronnny-in) is just an old racist fool, with a little bit of misogyny on his mamas side.
Klastri, the lady who said she was assaulted on a plane more the 30 years ago said it happened in a first-class cabin with raised arm-rest between seats. Really? A first-class cabin with raised arm-rest between seats? Anyone who believes that is a member of the “unaware and compliant citizenry” created by the Democratic Party.
Ronin006 – Go ahead and dismiss her because she may have misremembered putting back a tray table (dinner dishes had just been cleared) for an arm rest. That tactic is working really well for Mr. Trump. You’re helping a lot. A whole lot.
Please make sure to keep blaming women for discussing Mr. Trump’s obvious, profound multiple personality defects.
Right, Klastri, your client may have “misremembered putting back a tray table (dinner dishes had just been cleared) for an arm rest,” so please explain how it was possible for a meal to have been served and dinner dishes cleared away when, according to your client, the alleged assault occur when the plane was only 45 minutes into its flight? If she misremembered a tray table for an armrest, what else did she misremember? Was she really in first class? Was it really Trump who was seated next to her? How did she know it was Trump?
Ronin006 – The entire premise of your argument is false – a lie you made up and wrote here. That is, that there have never been arm rests in first class cabins. Of course there were. The Lockheed L-1011 featured wide arm rests that folded up into the seat backs.
If you’re going to build an argument around something, building it around a lie is not your best choice.
“Trump’s lewd remarks concern campuses fighting Bill Clinton’s sex assaults”
Is what Trump said and did ok?
Mr. Trump and his remarkable supporters (remarkable in a horrific way) think it is. Which is why Mrs. Clinton is now up something like 40 points on Trump with women. The margin is ever greater among well educated women.
This election gave a boost folks who have been in the “basket of deplorables” for a long time, but were operating in the shadows. Mr. Trump has given them a voice, and now they’re showing the world who they are. It’s a disgrace.
More than a disgrace, a “National disgrace.”
IRT Klastri, your 538 avg of women vote Ms Hillary v Mr. Trump average +15 as of October 11, 2016.
kuroiwaj – Mr. Trump is going to lose in a historic landslide. You can accept reality or not. I couldn’t care less.
I’m guessing that I will not see you at Mrs. Clinton’s inauguration.
No and he apologized for what he said.
What “did” he do?
Is what hiLIARy did to the Bubba’s VICTIMS ok?
Is what Bubba did to the following women ok?
* In 1972, a 22-year-old woman told campus police at Yale University that she was sexually assaulted by Clinton, a law student at the college. No charges were filed, but retired campus policemen contacted by Capitol Hill Blue confirmed the incident.
* In 1974, a female student at the University of Arkansas complained that then-law school instructor Bill Clinton tried to prevent her from leaving his office during a conference. She said he groped her and forced his hand inside her blouse. She complained to her faculty advisor who confronted Clinton, but Clinton claimed the student ”came on” to him. The student left the school shortly after the incident. Reached at her home in Texas, the former student confirmed the incident, but declined to go on the record with her account. Several former students at the University have confirmed the incident in confidential interviews and said there were other reports of Clinton attempting to force himself on female students;
*Broaddrick, a volunteer in Clinton’s gubernatorial campaign, said he raped her in 1978. Mrs. Broaddrick suffered a bruised and torn lip, which she said she suffered when Clinton bit her during the rape;
* From 1978-1980, during Clinton’s first term as governor of Arkansas, state troopers assigned to protect the governor were aware of at least seven complaints from women who said Clinton forced, or attempted to force, himself on them sexually. One retired state trooper said in an interview that the common joke among those assigned to protect Clinton was “who’s next?” One former state trooper said other troopers would often escort women to the governor’s hotel room after political events, often more than one an evening;
* Carolyn Moffet, a legal secretary in Little Rock in 1979, said she met then-governor Clinton at a political fundraiser and shortly thereafter received an invitation to meet the governor in his hotel room. “I was escorted there by a state trooper. When I went in, he was sitting on a couch, wearing only an undershirt. He pointed at his penis and told me to suck it. I told him I didn’t even do that for my boyfriend and he got mad, grabbed my head and shoved it into his lap. I pulled away from him and ran out of the room.”
* Elizabeth Ward, the Miss Arkansas who won the Miss America crown in 1982, told friends she was forced by Clinton to have sex with him shortly after she won her state crown. Last year, Ward, who is now married with the last name of Gracen (from her first marriage), told an interviewer she did have sex with Clinton but said it was consensual. Close friends of Ward, however, say she still maintains privately that Clinton forced himself on her.
* Paula Corbin, an Arkansas state worker, filed a sexual harassment case against Clinton after an encounter in a Little Rock hotel room where the then-governor exposed himself and demanded oral sex. Clinton settled the case with Jones recently with an $850,000 cash payment.
* Sandra Allen James, a former Washington, DC, political fundraiser says Presidential candidate-to-be Clinton invited her to his hotel room during a political trip to the nation’s capital in 1991, pinned her against the wall and stuck his hand up her dress. She says she screamed loud enough for the Arkansas State Trooper stationed outside the hotel suite to bang on the door and ask if everything was all right, at which point Clinton released her and she fled the room. When she reported the incident to her boss, he advised her to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to keep working. Miss James has since married and left Washington. Reached at her home last week, the former Miss James said she later learned that other women suffered the same fate at Clinton’s hands when he was in Washington during his Presidential run.
* Christy Zercher, a flight attendant on Clinton’s leased campaign plane in 1992, says Presidential candidate Clinton exposed himself to her, grabbed her breasts and made explicit remarks about oral sex. A video shot on board the plane by ABC News shows an obviously inebriated Clinton with his hand between another young flight attendant’s legs. Zercher said later in an interview that White House attorney Bruce Lindsey tried to pressure her into not going public about the assault.
* Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer, reported that Clinton grabbed her, fondled her breast and pressed her hand against his genitals during an Oval Office meeting in November, 1993. Willey, who told her story in a 60 Minutes interview, became a target of a White House-directed smear campaign after she went public.
No, the items you cited, if true, are all not ok.
What did Trump, do, brag about sexual assaults he is allowed to get away with because he is a celebrity. Or ask Taggart and Harth, or ex Ivana about what he did…
@advertiser1..bragging is “talk”…no action…big difference.
” Or ask Taggart and Harth, or ex Ivana about what he did…..” Any charges brought? Convictions?
Harth filed a federal lawsuit…not something you do lightly. Ivana testified that Donald violently raped her. Plus there was a 13 year old who alleges sexual misconduct, and a case was also filed. So, you really think that Trump didn’t do any of the things he said on that bus?
advertiser1..any CONVICTIONS?
OJ wasn’t convicted of murder, but guess what…And Harth settled. Again, I ask, do you think he did those things or not…I did not ask if he was convicted, just did he do them.
So no convictions. (OJ? geesh)
You’re the one who is insinuating The Donald did something. If you are prove it..that’s why I asked if there was any convictions to prove your insinuations.
So what’s the sense in going on and on when there’s nothing there..there is no there..get it?
Believe whatever you want that satisfies you.
I agree no convictions. But, again I ask, do you think he did any of that stuff? Including grabbing P? Would you want your daughter marrying him?
Repeat after me, “Bill is not running for President.”
Trump will lose by a land slide.
Repeat after me, “hiLIARy will not try to destroy Bubba’s past & future sexual assault victims.”
If Hillary dislikes sexual assaulters, then why does she stand by her “man”?
kinky?
Yes, mctruck, Bill is not running for President, but his wife is and she is the one who led the charge defending Bill against numerous sexual assault charges and who viciously attacked and trashed the women who he assaulted. Yes, it was Hillary, who claims to be the protector of women.
It’s over. He lost. Badly.
Real “Role Model” that one. Grab um by the P, that’s how he wins his wives over, that and $$$.
Get out and vote!
More invented stories by the liberal media.
Then, go back to separate schools for men and women.
As the father of a child that was sexually abused and later in life acted out in a way that is not condoned, it is very important to teach our society that groping and other behaviors that demean others (women, men, boys and girls) is unacceptable. To brush such behavior is to minimize such and help to make it appear to be the “norm”. Conduct as well as a behavior that demeans only makes such behavior appear okay to impressionable young minds. I know as my own child who was victimed in such a way as a child grew up living with the trauma and his own actions led to his own acting out. We need to chang the culture where human beings are treated as objects. It starts with us as parents. We need to watch what we say and do as our children will learn from how we conduct ourselves. We are their greatest role model whether we like it or not. Our schools need to do a better job of educating out children about what is right and wrong rhinking and behavior. To minimize groping is to say it is okay. What does that mean? it means offenders who grope will move on to other things that go into the second and first degree territory. For thought leads to behavior. Words may seem innocuous but words because they are thought expressed leads to action. We must stop it at groping. And for those unaware, groping of that area is a third degree. But it is still just as damaging for the victim.
Trumps chances–same as Russian roulette:
First, a Baldwin Wallace University poll showed Trump trailing Clinton by 9 percentage points in Ohio. That’s obviously an awful result for Trump — his worst poll of Ohio all year — although hard to put into context because Baldwin Wallace University hasn’t done a lot of election polling before. Their previous poll of Ohio, in February, showed Trump up by 2 points.
Another unsightly number for Trump came from a Y2 Analytics poll of Utah, which you may remember as the state that Mitt Romney won by 48 points. It showed Trump tied with Clinton at just 26 percent of the vote, with the independent candidate Evan McMullin at 22 percent and the Libertarian Gary Johnson at 14 percent. We’re going to be adding McMullin to our model in Utah — give us a day or two on that. But in the meantime, we could also really use another poll or two of Utah to confirm or contradict this result. Although polling there in the spring sometimes showed a tight race, Trump pulled ahead by margins ranging from 7 to 15 points in a series of Utah polls in August and September. If McMullin is really polling in the 20s, however — and taking most of his voters from Trump — he could create an unpredictable finish.
Finally, an Opinion Savvy poll of Florida put Clinton up by 3 percentage points. This is the least-worst of the post-debate polls for Trump, but still not good — it shows a slight uptick for Clinton from a late September poll, when Opinion Savvy had her ahead by less than a percentage point.
That’s it for the fully post-debate polls. But there was also a Monmouth University poll of Missouri, conducted mostly after the debate, that showed Trump up 5 percentage points there. That’s probably Trump’s best result of the day, given that Monmouth’s previous poll of Missouri, from August, had Trump up just 1 point. To keep things in perspective, however, Mitt Romney won Missouri by 9 points.
Finally, a Marquette University Law School poll of Wisconsin, conducted entirely before the debate, showed Clinton up 7 points — improved from a 3-point lead in Marquette’s mid-September poll. That’s about what we’d have expected to see from a Wisconsin poll, as our forecast has Clinton ahead there by about 8 points. In another scary bit of data for Trump, however, he did significantly worse in the portions of the poll that were conducted on Saturday and Sunday after the release of a 2005 video that showed him condoning unwanted sexual contact toward women.
There are also the national tracking polls, which variously show Trump to be rebounding slightly or Clinton to be continuing to extend her lead. Clinton also regained the lead in the Republican-leaning USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times tracking poll for the first time since Sept. 11, although we’d recommend reading this analysis of the poll from The Upshot’s Nate Cohn before you spend too much time focusing on its fluctuations.
Trump now trails Clinton by 6.5 percentage points in our popular vote forecast — by comparison, he was 4.6 points back of Clinton a week ago, on Oct. 5, before the videotape or the second debate. So he’s moving in the wrong direction as time is running out. While a Trump comeback is still mathematically feasible — Trump’s 17 percent chance in the polls-plus model, as we’ve pointed out before, is the same as your chances of losing a “game” of Russian roulette — it wouldn’t really have any good precedent in recent American presidential elections.
Buahahahahahahahahahhahqhahahahahahahhahahahhah.
HRC, now has almost a 90% chance of winning–read up and weep, Trumpers, see:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html?action=click&contentCollection=DealBook&module=Trending&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
I lifted this definition of a double standard from Wikipedia.
“A double standard may take the form of an instance in which certain concepts are perceived as acceptable to be applied by one group of people, but are considered unacceptable—taboo—when applied by another group. A double standard can therefore be described as a biased or morally unfair application of the principle that all are equal in their freedoms. Such double standards are seen as unjustified because they violate a basic maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law. Double standards also violate the principle of justice known as impartiality, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism based on social class, rank, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or other distinctions. A double standard violates this principle by holding different people accountable according to different standards.”
I had to use the dictionary to look up some of the words in the definition since I’m a blue collar guy. But I’m sure our former supreme court justice klastri or the SA comment board resident Rhodes Scholar Ike can untangle this so even us deplorables can understand it.
Hey blue collar Charlie, let me give you some hints: one keep on subject; two, try to intellectually acquit yourself by bringing either new information or vantages to the discussion, that have some nexus to the topic at hand; and three, what in the world does your submission of “double standard” have anything to do with HRC having a 90% chance of currently winning the election?
If you are attempting to formalize a posit on moral equivalency, you are doing a very poor job. Furthermore, it’s already been done, without too much flair or traction, by folks far more articulate and smarter than you.
Ouch! Guess I touched a raw nerve on that one. Not to over-simplify and run the risk of not being nuanced enough for the best and brightest, but…This whole election boils down to 2 very flawed human beings running for the most powerful elected position on the planet. And you may want to sit down for this so you don’t faint, but they are both being judged by different standards as evidenced by the non-stop childish hit pieces on Trump.
To that I agree. HRC is incredibly nuanced, diligent about understanding details, both broad and granular, and always willing and moreover capable of having an expert level of dexterity on a wide array of public policy issues–Trump, not so much on all accounts.
No problem for the Trumpster. People who don’t like the way he talks can be put in jail, problem fixed!
Discourse on lewd consternation.