Merced College is looking to help victims of sexual assault. Here’s how they’re doing it

Merced College officials are planning to hire a new grant-funded sexual violence prevention program manager — a new position for the college.

“This is very important for the college and in general,” said John Pedrozo, one of the Merced College trustees. “Anytime you have a chance to get a grant and do good, you take advantage of that.”

The new sexual violence prevention program manager, according to the Vice President of Student Services, is funded by a $300,000 federal grant that will be paid out over three years.

The manager is tasked with creating a community response team to assist in the response to sexual and dating violence, establish a program that educates new students of the college about sexual violence prevention and start a bystander intervention program, among other duties.

While there’s no real indication what the sexual violence prevention program will look like just yet, school officials said it will likely include components like online modules, presentations and face-to-face classroom talks. School officials expect it will include training for bystander intervention and resources for students.

“That’s what this person will be doing,” said Mike McCandless, vice president of student services.

The Merced College board’s decision to move ahead with hiring a sexual violence prevention program manager comes at the same time the college released their annual crime statistics report, which showed that no crimes occurred on campus last year.

School officials said crime rates were so low last year because all students transitioned to remote learning due to COVID-19. School officials said crime rates were so low last year because all students transitioned to remote learning due to COVID-19.

“All of our reportable offenses for last year were at zeros,” said Jeffrey Horn, the Merced Community College police chief. “We really don’t have anything to add to the current report because we were all distance learning.”

Even with school officials implementing remote learning for all Merced College students in 2020, crime rates have been low for the last few years across all the college’s campuses and facilities.

“I can’t recollect anything that’s been very drastic,” said veteran board member Pedrozo of the college’s crime numbers. “If staff sense anything, they address it as soon as possible. I personally think things get addressed as soon as something happens.”

Local advocates support new role

Under the Clery Act of 1990, educational institutions like Merced College have to collect data about on- and near-campus crime, including murder, manslaughter, burglary, motor vehicle theft, rape, arson, simple assault, theft, robbery, intimidation, and property destruction or damage, among other crimes.

Crimes under the Clery Act also include domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

“I think it’s a really great thing they’re looking at this because college campuses are renowned for having sexual violence,” Kimberly Scott, program director at Valley Crisis Center in Merced. “It’s really good they’re going to bring this out in the open and teach students more about the culture of rape and the culture of respect and the abuse of power. I think it’s going to help develop safety plans and explain how discipline works and how to go about getting help.”

The ability to get a restraining order and other support services that could be offered by the school, like changing a class schedule and offering bystander education, could be tools that are helpful to students in a campus setting, Scott said.

“It’s been shown that teaching people about bystander education, teaching people about respect, does help,” Scott said. “Teaching people how to resist, how not to be coerced into sex and not doing it as ‘risk reduction,’ because there’s a lot of rape myths out there.”

Rape myths, Scott added, include things like a woman wearing a short skirt asking to be harassed or teaching girls and women how to behave to avoid sexual assault.

“They should be teaching people that are in control to not do that,” Scott said of those who are in a position to perpetrate sexual crimes.

A nationwide problem

According to statistics from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), 13 percent of all students are raped or sexually assault, and 26.4 percent of female undergraduate students experience the same kind of violence. Among male undergraduate students, 6.8 percent are raped or sexually assaulted.

The crime report issued by Merced College seems to show all crimes on campus are low from year to year. The only on-campus crime committed at the main campus in Merced was a vehicle theft. There were no vehicle thefts in 2018 or 2019 at the Merced campus, although there were two near campus in 2019.

The report also states there were two on-campus burglaries in 2018. There was one report of rape on-campus in 2019.

There were no reported crimes of any kind at the Los Banos campus for 2018, 2019 or 2020. There were also no reported hate crimes at or near any Merced College campus or facility, including the Merced campus, Los Banos campus, the Business Resource Center in Merced or the welding shop in Los Banos.

Merced College officials also report crimes defined under an amendment to the Clery Act, the Violence Against Women Act of 2014.

These crimes include sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking. In 2019, there were two instances of domestic violence — one on the Merced campus and one near the campus. There was one case of dating violence on campus in 2018, and one in 2019. There were none reported at the Los Banos campus for the last three years.

For those who need help after being raped, sexually assaulted or experiencing sexual or intimate partner violence, call the Valley Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline at 209-722-4357 or visit their website at valleycrisiscenter.org.