He’s like a ghost, my personal haunting — appropriate, since ghosts linger in places where they shouldn’t. I always thought that my sin was my silence; he lingers on campus because I am keeping him here by failing to speak up. Years ago, on Halloween, my sexual assailant grabbed my butt, stuck his hands up my shirt and put his arm around my throat. I exploded into tears — a tried-and-true method for getting a boy to stop trying to have sex with me. I never told him that he, question-asker and yes-receiver, does not understand consent at all.

Source: New York Times May 10, 2018 13:38 UTC