Stanford University Offers Students a New Sexual Assault Reporting Tool

Stanford University is offering students a new tool that can be used by victims of sexual misconduct or assault. Stanford has adopted the online platform Callisto for a three-year trial period.

There are many reasons why survivors don’t report incidents of sexual assault or misconduct or delay doing so. It often takes time for survivors to label what happened to them as assault or to want to report. College students also often fear they won’t be believed, that their friends or parents will find out, or that they’ll experience negative social repercussions.

Some survivors decide to report an assault after the passage of time, but the details of the experience may no longer be fresh in their memories. Callisto solves that problem. It allows a student to document an experience with unwanted sexual conduct and time-stamp it in a secure web environment. If a student isn’t ready to submit a report to the university immediately, the system preserves the information. At any time, a student can return to the system to submit a report to the university. In addition, students can choose an option in which an incident is reported to the university only if the same offender has been identified by another student in another incident.

This new reporting system is another option for students. They can still report any misconduct to the university’s Title IX office or to the police. And the university provides a confidential support team that will provide guidance and counseling to students who are examining what action to take.