TRIGGER WARNING, THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT  SEXUAL ASSAULT. 

“Our assessment has shown that a culture of sexual entitlement exists among some players on the men’s ice hockey team, stemming in part from their elevated social status on campus,” says the 11-page Report of the Men’s Ice Hockey Task Force at Boston University.

For those folks who have just joined us here in Boston, or if you’ve just been too busy keeping up with the Kardashians to pay any attention, here’s a small bit of what the BU Hockey Team has been up to. Since last year, when allegations of sexual assault started to come out, many more witnesses have spoken up.  At parties, they’ve been said to put their hands down the pants of women, and refuse to listen to their pleas to stop. When they won the NCAA tournament in 2009, there was a party inside Agganis Arena in which the kegs of beer were supplied in the showers. Naked hockey was played while members of the team participated in sexual actions within the penalty boxes. Is this your idea of college? Did you come to college to get popular and go to crazy parties.

We’re not here to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, but there’s something important that you, as a college student, need to understand. Consent. Agreement. Approval.

If you decide to have sex with someone without their prior consent, you’re sexually assaulting them. If they’re too influenced by drugs or alcohol to consciously talk, and you decide to have sex with them, that’s rape. No exceptions. There is no excuse for someone partaking in sexual assault. You’re never entitled to have intercourse with ANYONE. What the hockey players at BU have taken part in is sick and disgusting, and we here at the Journal will NEVER tolerate this kind of behavior.

You’re an adult. Please make smart decisions, never put anyone in any position which might make them uncomfortable, especially if it involves them sexually. As some of you begin your journey into adulthood, be on the right side. Help those who have been victims by reading into consent and spreading the knowledge to all your friends.

Let’s make the world a

safer space for everybody.