Opinion: Sexual assault is a public health issue

Common public health measures include promoting hand washing, delivering vaccines and distributing condoms to prevent the spread of STDs.

Yet there’s another important public health measure that may not be as spotlighted:

Don’t sexually assault others.

In the arduous process of reporting sexual assault, victims are questioned on what they wore, what they had to drink and what they could have done to prevent being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Telling a victim of sexual assault that his or her assault was preventible has a hidden message.

If you were more conservatively dressed, sober and walking home with friends, your assaulter might have assaulted someone who wasn’t you.

A tangible way to prevent future sexual assault is to educate young people on informed consent.

“Don’t sexually assault others” may seem obvious, but it’s harder for people to keep in mind when they don’t understand the boundaries of consent.

It should be simple. An enthusiastic and clearly communicated “yes” is consent.

Relenting after constant badgering, being unable to say “no” from inebriation, giving a half-hearted shrug — not consent.

Even this year, The Carolina Review pulled a 2013 article from its archives titled “The Left is Lying About Sexual Assault.”

The author wished to remain anonymous and argued that the campus dialogue around rape culture was exaggerated.

“If 1 in 4 were true, you’d expect a mass exodus of American women from coed universities like UNC,” the author wrote.

The author is not alone in denying the realities of sexual assault — this issue is not evident to everyone on this campus.

Despite efforts (which should be applauded) by the University and by activists, sexual assault remains an issue.

Last Tuesday, the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center was awarded $1.79 million by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the impact of a rape prevention education program for young men and boys.

The CDC-funded study will assess the effectiveness of “Wise Guys: The Next Level,” a program that educates young males in Guilford County about intimate partner violence and how to prevent sexual assault.

The board congratulates the center on its grant and hopes that the study will shed light on whether or not educational prevention programs like “Wise Guys” work.

We hope that they do.