Challenge college-rape culture

There is something seriously wrong with college culture in the United States when teenage girls leaving home for higher learning are equipped with rape whistles, knockout-drug detectors and the phone number of the nearest sexual-assault treatment centers.

These cautions are not an overreaction: 1 in 5 female students are sexually assaulted while in college, either by physical force or, more commonly, while they are incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, according to a study prepared for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Many prevention tactics fall to the potential victims. Young women are advised not to drink too much, of course, but also to get their own drinks at parties and never to leave those drinks unattended, or to cover them with tamper-proof film, lest they be spiked.

Implicit in requiring individuals to take sometimes extraordinary safety measures is the acceptance of campus sexual assault as an immutable fact of life.

For far too long, our society has ignored the main cause: the rapists themselves — young men who believe that satiating their sexual appetites outweighs the requirement for consent from a conscious, willing partner.

These predators are outliers, a minority among college-age men. However, by failing to continuously call them out, their fraternity brothers, athletic teammates, classmates and others are missing an opportu- nity to vastly improve college life across the country.

Silence condones an atmosphere we must no longer tolerate.

That’s why the Obama administration’s new national "It’s On Us" campaign to thwart campus sexual assaults has such potential: It’s aimed squarely at young men.

Helping the majority of college men summon the courage to outspokenly condemn abhorrent behavior will galvanize urgently needed change.

Ultimately, though, the effort must expand far beyond college campuses, to homes, churches and K-12 schools.

Children must learn from an early age to respect personal boundaries, to speak up and step up for those who are unable to help themselves, and to call out those who violate community standards — even if the violators are their friends.

Research studying ways to deter rape shows how important it is to broach this topic years ahead of time.

By the time they reach middle school, boys need to hear from parents, teachers, coaches and trustworthy older peers about how to conduct healthy relationships.

And they need to develop the courage and skills to stand up to wrongdoers.

Transforming social norms so that peer pressure curtails date rape, rather than condones it, requires a frank, comprehensive approach.

"From sports leagues to pop culture to politics, our society does not sufficiently value women. We still don’t condemn sexual assault as loudly as we should," Obama said. "It is not just on parents of young women to caution them. It is on the parents of young men to teach them respect for women. It is on grown men to set an example and be clear about what it means to be a man."

We applaud the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to eliminate the scourge of campus sexual assaults.

Last January, the president launched the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.

In May, the U.S. Department of Education publicly identified 55 colleges being audited to ensure compliance with federal law regarding the investigation of sex-abuse complaints.

The University of Hawaii-Manoa is on that list.

The "It’s on Us" campaign continues to shine a spotlight on this issue, and zeroes in on the right audience.

Now it’s on all of us to make sure that young men get the message.