Mormonism has long been proclaimed to be a religion of peace and forgiveness, not only by members of the church, but from many residents around Idaho.
But last week at Brigham Young University (BYU), a private university and the flagship institution of the Mormon faith, the school made the decision to bar an alleged rape victim from class registration for supposedly breaking the college”s internal honor code.
A snippet of the BYU Honor Code states that students must “manifest a strict commitment to the law of chastity.” After she was sexually assaulted, Barney claimed the university accused her of violating this oath. The college has currently blocked Barney from registering for any future classes at BYU as punishment for the incident. In addition, the institution informed the student that she did not have enough proof of the assault to be granted Title IX resources.
The news made me sick to my stomach. The uneasiness quickly transitioned into an internal rage.
My anger at BYU”s decision is not based solely on its treatment of the young woman, but at the Mormon faith for its approval of such a punishment.
It is absolutely appalling that a Mormon institution – based on a religion of forgiveness – would punish a student for a crime that was committed against her.
The punishment from the university is in stark contrast to a previous statement made by BYU President Kevin Worthen.
In an April 18 online statement, Worthen said “Victims of sexual assault will never be referred to the Honor Code Office for being a victim of sexual assault.”
If that is the case, how does he explain this situation?
According to the report by the Salt Lake Tribune, BYU officials actively sought police reports of the incident, launching an Honor Code investigation after a copy of the report was obtained. That sounds a little hypocritical to me.
As if the situation were not bad enough, Barney said she was denied assistance from professors in accommodating court appearances and other aspects of the investigation into her case.
What kind of world do we live in, where professors and administrators turn a cold shoulder toward students who have experienced such a brutal crime?
I was raised a Christian.
Although Mormonism is a unique branch of Christianity they possess a number of striking similarities in practice and teachings. When I hear of victims who have experienced sexual assault or rape, my first instinct is to help – not punish.
This situation highlights the broken system that is BYU and the eagerness of the institution to devote its attention toward Honor Code violations, rather than aiding those who are the victims of egregious crimes.
I recommend that any high school student considering BYU rethink their decision. If not for the alarming internal policies, then at least for their own safety.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom
Josh Grissom
ArgonautMadi Barney, the victim of the crime, said she waited four days to report the incident out of fear of academic punishment from the institution.
Beck A Perrine
Someone who can't prove they were assaulted shouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt, that is not how rule of law works. Think with your brain and not your inner desire to please women you wet sponge. terrible article
Bill Kilpatrick
Josh Grissom's thinly-veiled attack on Mormonism is shoddy journalism. To be sure, BYU has a problem, but it's one that deserved better treatment than this hack piece. What we have here is the intersection of two phenomena: sexual assault on college campuses and the honor code at BYU. Campus cases of sexual assault are a national problem. With thousands of young men and women, in the prime of their lives, many of whom are seeking companionship, there are going to be cases of predatory behavior. Add to that the usual predatory tricks - involving alcohol, drugs and isolation - and you've got a recipe for bad things. BYU presents itself as a safe place - not just to be Mormon, but to be young and away from home. Its honor code - banning alcohol, drugs, sex and the isolation of a partner's bedroom - is designed to protect the integrity of the community and the safety of its students. In general, if you go to BYU, on the promise that you'll honor the code - and then you break it - you're putting your status there in jeopardy. The problem comes when there's a case of sexual assault and the behavior leading up to it threw the code out the window. How does BYU maintain its standards - as an institution and as a community - without adding insult to injury, without giving predators more leverage, and without looking like it's punishing rape victims? It can't - which is why BYU should give amnesty to rape victims. If you report a rape, you shouldn't have to worry that doing so put your status at BYU at risk. Doing so compromises enforcement of the honor code. It also opens the door to false claims, made in pursuit of amnesty. But both of those issues are outweighed by the ever-present reality that sexual assault happens at college, even at BYU. Ironically, while the code is designed to make students safer, no code can guarantee perfect safety from harm. Punishing victims after the fact is pointless and destructive, both to them, to other students and to the institution, itself. If Grissom thinks female students are safer at a non-Mormon university, where alcohol, drugs and sex are pervasive, he's welcome to his delusions, which are no less dangerous than bad religion on its worst day.
BoscoBob
What the United States will be like when it becomes a Theocracy. "Christian" Sharia Law anyone?
Colin Snider
Just a quick comment. Obviously there are issues about the relationship between the BYU Title XI office and the Honors Code Office that need to be resolved, but just to clarify, Madi Barney was suspended not for being sexually assaulted, but for "previous violation of the honor code" that surfaced in the policy report. This could be drinking, doing drugs, or a number of other activities. Here suggestion that BYU suspended her for being sexually assaulted is not quite accurate. It could verywell be the case that she would be suspended even if she hadn't been assaulted. The issue here is not whether victims should be punished for being sexually assualted, but whether sexual assault should exonerate you from any honor code infraction. That's a valid question, but I just wanted to clarify.