Southeast sexual-assault survivors: Assailants receive little or no punishment

Two Southeast Missouri State University students who survived sexual assaults said Monday their assailants received little or no punishment for their crimes.

Mahala Landeros said she was sexually assaulted after attending a fraternity party May 6.

"I was raped," she told a crowd of about 40 students and university employees at a forum on sexual assault at Crisp Hall Auditorium on the Southeast campus.

Landeros said she reported the incident to the university's office of student conduct, but the assailant never was punished by the school.

Instead, he was allowed to graduate, she said.

Meanwhile, Landeros said her grades suffered. She was afraid to go to the store by herself.

"I cried over and over," she said.

She said she still has trouble sleeping.

"I wake up every hour on the hour. I don't sleep," she said.

Landeros said she did not seek a criminal investigation. She said that was partly because she did not feel she could handle having to testify in court.

Student Grace Whiteside said she was sexually assaulted Oct. 24, 2015.

"I felt dirty and broken and weak," she said. "Paranoia set in."

Whiteside said, "I feel unsafe on campus."

She said she reported the incident to campus police, but no criminal charges were filed by the prosecuting attorney.

The university punished the student for violating the student code of conduct.

Whiteside said her assailant was fined $50 and ordered to do 15 hours of community service.

She pointed out the fine is less than the $100 fine a student faces for an alcohol violation on campus.

"He was not kicked out of the university," Whiteside said. "He gets to walk around campus and get away with it."

Whiteside added, "Every time I passed him, he would stare me down."

Randy Carter, assistant dean of students, directs the office of student conduct.

He said it takes 30 to 60 days to investigate an alleged violation of the student code of conduct.

He said the investigation in Landeros' case could not be wrapped up before the student graduated.

"We have to look at the rights of both individuals," he said.

Sexual assault is one of a number of offenses lumped together in the student code of conduct.

They include physical and verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, stalking, harassment, sexual harassment and any conduct which "submits any person to pain, discomfort or indignity or threatens or endangers the physical or mental health or safety of any person."

Landeros and Whiteside are two of the leaders of Redhawks Rising, a new student organization that helps survivors of sexual assault and seeks to spread awareness about sexual assault on the Southeast campus.

Both students and Carter spoke at the forum as part of a seven-member, university panel.

The others included C.P. Gause, chairman of the department of educational leadership and counseling; Capt. Kenneth Mayberry, assistant director of the public safety department, Donna St. Sauver, coordinator of the campus violence prevention program; and student Darris Whitehead.

St. Sauver said when it comes to dealing with sexual assaults on campus, "Our procedures are not perfect."

Molly Wilhelm, education and community impact coordinator for the Safe House for Women, moderated the discussion.

Wilhelm said sexual-assault victims often are put in the position of having to prove that "this happened to them."

Wilhelm said the vast majority of sexual-assault reports are true.

Only 2 percent to 8 percent of reported sexual assaults prove to be false, she said.

Alcohol and drugs often play a factor in sexual violence, she said.

According to online campus crime statistics reported by Southeast, the school had 25 cases of "forcible sex offenses" reported to the campus police during a four-year period from 2012 through 2015.

Twelve of those cases occurred in 2015.

But students don't always report such crimes to campus police, and they are not required to do so, university officials said.

Landeros said sexual assaults are common.

"These things happen every night, let alone every weekend," she said.

The forum was the second in the university's "engagement series."

An earlier forum focused on race and community policing.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Mo.