I wrote this in response to a letter published on October 27th titled “Training is a waste of my time.”

Dear TP,

Title IX is by no means a waste of time. If you had actually completed your training correctly, you would have watched several videos, many of which were not simply “Don’t assault people”. The program covered a variety of topics, including abusive relationships, factual information on why assaults happen, and information on alcohol.

I don’t know about you, but I think informing people on what is appropriate behavior in a relationship isn’t a bad idea. The “It’s On Us” campaign went into detail about what constitutes abuse in a relationship, and how to speak to someone about it, whether you’re the victim, or if a friend is.

As for making people relive attacks, there are clear trigger warning that appear before each video, (something else you may have noticed if you’d completed the training) so that persons who feel uncomfortable can mute, or not watch the video.

I cannot explain how angry I was reading “Excuse me, I have a life…”. I’m sure you do, we all do, and part of living in a community is protecting it.

I’m sure you don’t assault people, most people don’t, but some people do actually assault people. People need to know that assault is something that happens, and that it’s not shameful to be a survivor, or to talk about it in an adult way.

Sexual Assault is a real issue, not just here on campus, but everywhere. On average, one in ten women will be assaulted by their partner, and one in five women will be assaulted in their lifetime.
These aren’t statistics you can dismiss, these statistics come from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

As for the claim that this is a waste of money, it’s a free program, funded, at least in part, by the White House.

So for the record: Teaching people about assault is a good thing, trigger warnings ensure that rape survivors can watch the videos, most people aren’t rapists, but a large percentage of women are raped, and the program is free.

What is your objection?

Oh right, the hold on your account. Take an hour out of your day and do the program, you might learn something.

And for the record: If the way you ask someone out on a date can be considered sexual assault maybe you should try another approach.