Melissa Holzberg, a junior majoring in political communication, is The Hatchet’s opinions editor. 

I’ve been a female college student for over two years now. Although most of my fears about college have subsided, there’s one thing that hasn’t – the fear of sexual assault on campus. But I’ve always been comforted knowing that if something happened to me, I would be able to choose exactly how to move forward. For thousands of college students in Virginia, that choice will be reduced later this year.

Last week Virginia passed a law that will take effect on Oct. 1 that takes away college sexual assault survivors’ right to choose whether or not to open a criminal investigation against their assailants. The new law mandates that any Virginia university employee who learns of an act of sexual violence must report that to a Title IX review committee, and that committee must report criminal sexual assault cases to a local Commonwealth attorney within 48 hours – without the survivor’s consent.

In comparison, GW’s sexual assault policy states that “filing a formal complaint does NOT mean that you have filed a criminal (police) report,” which means the Title IX office can respond to a sexual assault report without involving law enforcement. But now in Virginia, university officials could take a sexual assault report to state law enforcement officials on their own.

Supporters of the law might say it protects survivors by making sure justice is served against the assailants. But still, the law takes away survivors’ control. Forcing school officials to tell on survivors for coming forward to university employees creates a distrustful atmosphere. Laws like this don’t ensure justice will be served, and they may discourage survivors from sharing their stories at all.

There are many reasons that all sexual assault survivors don’t press criminal charges with state police. Some don’t want to face their assailants or don’t want to constantly recall the assault to countless investigators and officers. Regardless of the “why,” it makes little sense that state officials would force school officials to report sexual assault cases to a state attorney without survivors’ consent.

This law will not only affect people with permanent residency in Virginia. Because this law is directed at college campuses, visitors at one of Virginia’s many universities will be subject to the law. As a woman who visits the University of Virginia often, I feel like I’m losing some of my rights. If I was sexually assaulted while on that campus, I would want the right to decide to file a criminal investigation. I would want the choice to disclose what happened to an official at the university without being questioned by the police. And people across the country should fight for college students in Virginia to have that right – not to have their governor and state government officials take it away.

Survivors should not be silenced. Survivors deserve the choice to tell a counselor at student health services what happened and to get the care they need. Survivors deserve the choice to tell an adviser or professor what they’ve gone through. And they deserve for those conversations to remain private.

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