Every spring semester, thousands of college students from across the United States and even other countries flock to the state of Florida to enjoy in essence what is known as a “true college spring break.” A true college spring break for most people is going to the beach with a group of friends while letting loose and enjoying a week means free from exams, homework, and the stresses of college. It is almost a rite of passage to go to Florida for spring break with friends, but when did leaving common sense become a part of that rite?
Two Troy University students and a Middle Tennessee State University student have been charged with, “sexual battery by multiple perpetrators in connection with a video that the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said , “appeared to be of a gang rape that occurred on Panama City Beach during spring break,” which is stated on AL.com. The three men were seen on a video that was found while the Bay County Sheriff’s office investigated the shooting of seven students who were attending a house party during spring break in Panama City Beach.
“We have got to get control of our beaches,” said Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen during a press conference held after the arrest of the two Troy students. Delonte Martistee, 22, of Bainbridge, GA and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, of Mobile, AL were the named perpetrators. The third student from Middle Tennessee State University is George Davon Kennedy of Murfreesboro, Tn.
Did common sense evade the other students who stood around while this group of people did this? It is disgusting that this happened on an overly crowded beach in PCB while others stood around and did nothing to help this woman. Our generation has fallen so far that they will allow a woman who is intoxicated to the point of nearly passing out to be raped and filmed by these students on the beach? I know that as college students we will drink alcohol while on spring break, but was the crowd so drunk that they did not realize a woman was being raped right in front of them?
Has our generation been desensitized so much by sex and rape jokes that when it happens in front of us we don’t go to the person’s aide? There is a problem no one wants to talk about, it’s how we are surrounded by a rape culture. Rape culture is like racism, we all know it exists but no one wants to acknowledge it. Not to say we live in a rape culture, but there is a strong problem when no one recognizes what sexual assault looks like. The groups suffered from the bystander affect which is when people see what is happening but they are waiting for someone else to step up and fix the problem. Just knowing the bystander affect exist increases the chances that someone will ignore a future event that should call for immediate action.
We cannot allow the media to distort our image of what spring break is supposed to look like with parties, drinking, and sex. We cannot hyperbolize that sex is happening so much during spring break that we do not fully recognize when sexual assault is happening two inches away from our face. When did a woman being intoxicated on a beach lawn chair during spring break become an invitation for a group of males to sexually assault her? There is nothing consensual about raping another person.
Our society has the problem of blaming the victim more so than the perpetrators who committed such a heinous crime. It is not okay to rape another human being. We need to recognize that there is a problem with some people in our society. We need to find different ways to convey to these people sexually assaulting someone is a horrible crime because the victim can be scarred for life. We need to stop thinking of ways for victims to do things to lower their chances of rape and start telling the perpetrator that raping someone is NOT okay. I just hope that the group involved in this case are found guilty of all charges and receive the maximum sentence which will hopefully put them away for the remainder of their life. I hope that the justice system, or yet the greater public, does not fail the victim either in this case.
