While walking to work through downtown Pullman on Friday, I encountered a large group of high school students who were protesting the Pullman High School administration’s handling of rape allegations.

I stopped and inquired of one of the protesters what was going on — and was told it was a protest of the administration’s failure to respond to the rape of a student. I asked who had been raped. The young woman replied, “I was.” As I talked to students that day, I learned there was more than one alleged victim.

Because I am the parent of a Pullman High School student, I had received an email about the matter two days earlier, which read: “We are aware of an individual posting information on social media regarding an alleged incident at Pullman High School. The social media post is not true and the information shared is not accurate. Any alleged incidents reported to Pullman High School staff are investigated and reported to the proper authorities. We want to assure you that Pullman High School is a safe place for all. Sincerely, Juston Pollestad, Principal, Bob Maxwell, Superintendent.”

By the end of the day, I reached Pollestad, who assured me there had been no rape on campus.

“What about off campus?” After a long pause, he told me that anything that occurred off campus would be reported to the police. I immediately understood why the students were frustrated. Although the social media post was inaccurate, the email was misleading in that it insinuated that the victim had lied about the entire incident, when in fact, a victim had reported the incident to the Pullman Police Department, as verified by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News on Saturday. Pollestad’s statement to me was a well-intentioned effort to assure me that the high school was safe, but it perpetuated the misinformation. I am not naïve. The school’s and the district’s denial of what happened is offensive to parents, students and especially victims. Furthermore, it is dangerous.

Prompted by my own rape during my first year as a student at the University of Missouri, I have long been an advocate for victims of rape. I co-authored the sexual assault policy statement for the American Association of University Professors, authored three articles about rape, have given many presentations and workshops on sexual assault and served for years as a moderator for Pandora’s Project, a website for victims of sexual abuse and assault.

Young women are disproportionately victims of sexual assault, and when they report, they are all too often disbelieved, silenced and trivialized. Yet we ignore these victims at our own peril; the average perpetrator assaults at least six victims before he is apprehended by law enforcement.

I would eventually learn that my rapist had sexually abused his own daughter from the age of 3, and his daughter assured me that there had been many more victims.

In the Pullman community, a longtime music store employee, Victor Hudak, was recently arrested on a charge of felony first-degree child molestation allegedly involving an 11-year-old girl.

This followed a previous arrest for groping a 14-year-old girl in 2019. In that case, Hudak pleaded guilty to fourth-degree misdemeanor assault with sexual motivation and served three months in jail, according to court records.

Recent interpretations of Title IX have insisted that harassment and rape must be addressed because women deserve an equal opportunity to education. While I understand that established procedures must be followed, Pullman High School and the school district are doing a disservice to the community by denying the truth of the incident. Thank you to students for insisting on accountability, and to the Daily News for covering the protest. I hope that their protest will lead to honest conversations about sexual assault.

Potts lives and writes in Pullman.