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“The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about sexual assaults on college campuses, was screened yesterday afternoon at St. John’s Queens campus.
The event took place in the Little Theater at 3:30p.m. According to Director of Media Relations Elizabeth Reilly and Assistant Director for Wellness and Violence Prevention Hannah Artiles-Stravers, approximately 300 to 350 students and faculty attended the event.
Before the documentary started, Artiles-Stravers spoke about sexual misconduct that has been happening on college campuses around the nation, and also talked about why St. John’s University decided to show the documentary at this time.
“The first 6 weeks are when most sexual violence occurs,” Artiles-Stravers said, “We want to start the year with this message.”
For the cover story picture, the attribution goes to Assistant Vice President for Design and Construction Ibi Yolas.
Artiles-Stravers explained that “The Hunting Ground” is a film that documents two survivors’ journeys and recorded their treatment by their university.
The film shows their experiences before and after they reported the incident and tried to receive resources.
She also explained that their journey takes them to meet with several other survivors around the nation and found there was a pattern of behavior where universities were having challenges in responding to these incidents.
The documentary followed their process until it became a national issue.
The film also showed statistics on sexual misconduct, and mentioned that eight percent of victims know their attackers, 88 percent of sexual assaults victims don’t report the incidents, and less than eight percent of men on campus commit 88 percent of sexual assaults.
After the documentary, many people were distressed about the information they learned through the film. Junior television and film major Ashley Rodrguez, and sophomore economics major Ruben Rozo were among the students who showed concern over the statistics.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that these girls went through something so horrible,” Rodriguez said. “What’s worse is that it could have been prevented, you know.”
“I can’t comprehend why they [the victims] stay silent all this time,” Rozo said.
To conclude, Hannah Artiles-Stravers presented the Sexual Assault Response Team which consisted of Associate Dean for Student Services Jackie Lochrie, the Director of Employee Relations and Compliance Yael Wepman, and Assistant Director of Public Safety Compliance John Breheny.
