Sex and consent

Alcohol, drugs, college students and parties all play a crucial role in the increase of sexual assault cases during Spring Break, officials say.

South Padre Island Police Chief Randy Smith said he has seen an increase in sexual assault cases during the holiday period.

“Definitely, [sexual assault cases] increase; there is no doubt about that,” Smith said. “Anytime your population increases and you have a certain amount of drinking involved, that’s what’s unfortunate of it. So, we do have an increase in reports of sexual assault and subsequent investigations.”

Douglas Stoves, UTRGV associate dean of Student Rights and Responsibilities, said alcohol during Spring Break is a primary factor involved in sexual assaults.

“You have a period of time where you have a lot of college students together, there’s a lot of alcohol available. It’s almost an implied norm to get drunk and that always leads to problems,” Stoves said.

Cynthia Jones, director of the UTRGV Office of Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention and an associate professor in philosophy, said that in nationwide averages, 90 percent of college students who are sexually assaulted are victimized by somebody they know.

“Certainly, incidents can go up during [Spring] Break in places like the Island, where people drink too much and go crazy,” Jones said.

When it comes to sexual activity, there has to be consent.

Stoves defined consent as a verbal or nonverbal agreement between two people participating in sexual activity.

“For instance, if I am asking, let’s say, ‘Let’s go to lunch,’ and you say, ‘OK, I’ll go,’ you have given your consent. But if I say, ‘Do you want to go to lunch?’ and you are like, ‘No,’ and I’m like, ‘Come on, let’s go to lunch,’ and I coerce you into going, then that’s not really consent.”

Jones provided The Rider with a definition of affirmative consent, which is also used by the university in its Handbook of Operating Procedures.

“You probably grew up hearing, ‘No means no.’ Well, that’s not affirmative consent,” she said. “If you’re unconscious, you can’t consent, you can’t say no. Affirmative consent requires that there is active and ongoing participation of all parties in a sexual act.”

The UTRGV Handbook of Operating Procedures also states that consent to one sexual act does not necessarily imply consent to another. Past consent to sexual acts or activity does not necessarily imply future consent.

Consent can be withdrawn at any time through either words or actions, as long as that withdrawal is clearly communicated. Any expression of an unwillingness to engage in any instance of sexual activity, whether through words or actions, establishes a presumptive lack of consent, according to the UTRGV handbook.

Asked where the confusion lies when it comes to consent, Stoves replied: “I would say most of the confusion comes in just that issue. Somebody says yes and the two partners begin having intercourse and one says no and the other person just keeps going. … If you see somebody that [is] drunk or stumbling around and they need help standing up or they’ve thrown up because they’ve had too much to drink, they cannot consent to sex and that can constitute sexual assault.”

For the UTRGV campus community, the Office of Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention offers help to victims of sexual assault.

“What advocates do is facilitate services and explain things to people,” Jones said. “We see way more cases than ever get reported to the university because lots of those people–students, faculty and staff–many of them don’t want to report it [to the authorities]. We would like for them to report it [or to] file an official complaint. What people need to understand is that if something happens and they aren’t sure what they want to do, the best thing to do is to come to our office or counseling.”

She said advocates in her department accompany victims to talk to police if they want them to “because it can be really intimidating to talk to police.”

Jones also said students under 21 who are sexually assaulted and were drinking should not be scared to seek help.

“College students think, ‘Well, I’m 20 and I was drinking. I guess I drank too much and I was raped, but I don’t want to report it because I’ll get in trouble,’” she said. “There are actually protections for victims that will allow, for example, them not to get prosecuted for underage drinking. A university will not prosecute a student if they were drinking and became victimized.”

The Office for Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention is located in Learning Center Room 156 on the Edinburg campus. To make an appointment at the Brownsville campus, call 665-8287.

Stoves advised students to stay alert and look out for one another during Spring Break.

“We know that people are going to be out in the sun dehydrated,” he said. “We know that alcohol is going to be everywhere. Other drugs will be everywhere. It’s just about being smart about your own consumption, and also about looking out for your friends.”