Five sex crimes reported in a month at North Carolina college campus. ‘Very alarmed’
Five sex crimes were reported in less than a month to police at a North Carolina college, according to a recent campus notice.
University of North Carolina Wilmington said there is no ongoing threat after four reports of sexual assault and one report of “unconsensual fondling” were made between Sept. 24 and Oct. 17.
“I was actually quite surprised and I was very alarmed,” freshman Ashley Davis told WECT. “That’s not something to be, like, joked about.”
The school said it shared information about the reported sexual misconduct last week in a campus safety message, which also included resources for students who may have been victims.
Chris Bertram, interim chief of the UNCW Police Department, in an email said it wasn’t common for the campus to have multiple sex crime allegations within a few weeks of each other.
“What was unusual for us was the number that were reported in that short period of time,” Bertram told McClatchy News in an email. “For 2021, we currently have had 10 sex offenses reported. Our total for 2020 was 14 and for 2019 was 11. So as you can see, the total is in the range that we typically see reported to us over the course of a year.”
The most recent allegations didn’t “involve unknown respondents/perpetrators or an ongoing threat to the campus community,” officials said.
The school said anyone who experiences sexual misconduct can contact the university’s police department, Title IX office, and health or counseling centers. The college also has CARE, a resource for those “impacted by sexual misconduct or interpersonal violence,” according to officials. Resources are also available through the National Sexual Assault hotline at 800-656 4673 or for UNCW students at 910-512-4821.
This semester, UNCW has about 18,000 students, including more than 14,000 undergraduates.
The campus is located in the southeastern part of the state, close to popular beaches.
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 1:38 PM.
