STORY BY JONAS CORLISS, STAFF WRITER
PHOTO OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH LOGO VIA CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, highlighting the dangers of sexual violence and how we can combat it.
Over half of all women and one in three men experience sexual violence involving physical contact. Women, racial minorities, and LGBTQIA+ people experience sexual violence at higher rates according to the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence of New York. With such staggering numbers, it is important to know how to stay safe from sexual assault.
One way you can stay informed about sexual offenders is by using Megan’s Law. Megan’s Law is named after Megan Kanaka, a young girl who was raped and killed by her neighbor who was a convicted child molester.
The law allows anyone to look up a location on meganslaw.ca.gov and see how many registered sex offenders live near that area. The site shows 63 locations where registered sex offenders live within a two-mile radius of Cypress College. Fullerton College has less with 47 within the two-mile radius.
Another tool that is useful for college students is the Clery Act, which makes it so that colleges have to provide an annual public security report, which includes any reported crimes involving sexual violence.
The act is named after Jeanne Clery, a college freshman that was raped and killed in her college residence. Her death brought attention to unreported crimes on college campuses, leading to the acts passing in 1990. Cypress College’s 2023 report, which can be located in the Annual Safety and Security Report on the Cypress College website, shows that no sexual violence-related crimes were reported on campus.
Sexual violence has become a prominent issue in recent years. The increased use of social media and technological advances has created new ways for people to worry about being attacked sexually.
One major issue that has been receiving a lot of attention is deepfakes, using AI to put someone’s face onto another person performing sexual acts. This is something that is being fought at a legal level in many different states, California already allows victims to sue the people creating deepfakes of them. Deepfakes received more attention early this year when fake videos depicting Taylor Swift doing sexual activities spread online and were mass-reported by her fans, even leading to her name temporarily not being able to be searched on X, formerly known as Twitter. This event was so large that Missouri is in the process of creating the Taylor Swift Act which would allow victims to seek financial compensation for damages.
It is important to make sure that both you and the people that you know are safe. According to Project Sanctuary, a domestic violence and sexual assault intervention responder that covers the entire United States, the best way to prevent sexual violence is to rely on those you are with. Other great resources are hotlines for support. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is (800)-656-4673 and if you see any crimes, including sexual crimes, being committed on Cypress College’s campus, contact Campus Safety at (714)-484-7387.
