College Times

Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: News

Media Credit: photos.com

With the end of the school year partying about to begin, local police have a message for would-be female partiers: be careful.

"Sexual violence is a serious problem," said Brandon Banks, a spokesman for the Tempe Police Department. "In regards to college students, it is one of the top three problems we deal with due to a large university being close by and lots of drinking and partying going on."

Between 2004 and 2005, the state of Arizona received 578 police reports filed with DPS that included a sexual assault charge and 1,001 sexual assault charges filed without arrests made. These reports did not include sexual assault charges among spouses or children. In the last three months, three woman between the ages of 19 and 20 have been assaulted near ASU.

Of the millions of people in the US who are victims of sexual assault, women make up the majority - 78 percent. Of those women 22 percent are between the ages of 18 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Cdc.org reports, "Women in college who use drugs, attend a university with a high drinking rate, belong in a sorority and drank heavily in high school are at greater risk for rape while intoxicated."

But not all young women who are victims of sexual assault use drugs, belong in a sorority or drank in high school, like 21-year-old Mesa Community College student Nichole Ball.

"I was out partying at a local bar with people I worked with in Rocky Point over Labor Day weekend when I was 20 years old. I was nursing my drinks all night, seeing as how I had to drive home early in the morning, when a guy I had been talking to offered to buy me a double shot of Tequila.

"Soon after he asked me to go on a walk with him and the next thing I remembered was waking up a mile or two from the bar at the house he and his friends rented, in his bed naked, only to find all the windows and doors locked. He then forced me to repeatedly have sex with him until he decided to let me go," Ball said.

Like most women, Ball did not report the rape. Nearly 60 percent of women do not.

"I didn't report the rape because it took me weeks, if not months, to remember what had happened. I slowly started to have flashbacks," she said. "The next morning I woke up in my hotel room after he raped me; I couldn't even remember my name or phone number. Still to this day I can't remember his name."

Two years later, Ball still can't stand the smell or taste of Tequila as it brings back flashbacks, but she believes she is able to move past what happened to her that horrible night.

"Two years ago I was traumatized. I was scared to go out, unable to maintain an intimate relationship with my boyfriend at the time and depressed. Now I'm extremely happy and in a healthy, intimate relationship.

"I go out and drink on occasion, but now I try not to put myself in potentially dangerous situations, watch my drinks and surround myself with good friends who I can rely on in case something bad happens."

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