Thursday December 13, 2018
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Volume 104 Issue 47
Rape underreported on college campuses Most college-aged survivors don’t report sexual assault to authorities. NOAH BIESIADA Asst. News Editor
KORRYN SANCHEZ Layout Editor
Three rapes have been reported on or near the Cal State Fullerton campus in the past year, but none have led to an arrest because survivors either didn’t know the attacker or chose not to pursue legal action. The rape survivors in these reported cases were in the minority, as most college-aged survivors don’t report sexual assault to any authority. Only 20 percent of college student sexual assaults were reported to police or any type of legal authority, according to a 2014 special report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. In sexual assault cases, the survivors are usually the central piece of evidence in the prosecution, according to Alissa Ackerman, a criminal justice professor at CSUF. “Sex crimes are really difficult to prove in court, because typically the only evidence you have is the testimony of the victim, and the testimony of the perpetrator,” Ackerman said. The actual legal process can be a difficult experience, according to Mindy Mechanic, a psychology professor at CSUF. “All those proceedings and investigations can be pretty rough on a victim,” Mechanic said. “A lot of
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The Housing Community Resource Center is located in Cal State Fullerton student housing.
victims don’t really want to open themselves up to it; they don’t always necessarily believe there will be a fair and just outcome.” One reason that many survivors don’t report the crime is because they have their own preconceived idea of what sexual assault looks like. “If you asked what people think of with sexual assault or rape, their definition usually involves a stranger who climbs in a
bedroom window with a ski mask on and subdues an innocent victim,” Mechanic said. “If a sexual assault doesn’t look like the scary guy with a ski mask, it’s not always obvious to the person what just happened.” In over 80 percent of sexual assault cases the survivor knows their attacker, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. “When sex assault happens in the context of these other
pre-existing relationships, they can become very confusing for people,” Mechanic said. “It could be a date, it could be a spouse, it could be a intimate partner, it could be a co-worker, a boss, a friend or someone you just met at an event or party.” Another issue that comes with knowing the perpetrator is the confusion accompanying the situation. When a survivor realizes they’ve been sexually assaulted, it affects
the reporting process. “Then you have to see that person differently, you have to contemplate making a formal report, you have to contemplate maybe the ending of a relationship you cared about,” Mechanic said. The first step for a survivor in recovery is to regain a sense of trust, she said. Survivors can do so by looking for help in places they feel safe. SEE CRIME
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Garden Grove barber brings flair to hair About 40,000 students are enrolled at Cal State Fullerton. They come from communities in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Some commute long distances to get to campus. The series Voices from Home tells stories about the people and places that make their communities unique. These are some of their voices.
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Adrian Zemora has been cutting hair in his barber shop for 23 years. OMAR SANCHEZ Staff Writer
Adrian Zemora, barber and owner of Adrian’s Barber Shop in Garden Grove, was fascinated with the art of cutting hair at a young age. He started to cut hair on his own at around the age of 10 when he found a pair of clippers that belonged to his older brother. Zemora would practice by cutting his friend’s hair, which then led to him getting into trouble with his friend’s parents. “Their parents would come to my mom’s house and they would start telling my mom, ‘Look what your son did to my son.’’” Zemora said. “My mom would always go, ‘Where are you, where did you get those clippers?!’ She found them and of course threw them away, but my brother had another pair and I continued to do what I was doing, just cutting friends’ hair.” When Zemora reached his teenage years, he continued to practice cutting hair, and had a lot of friends who would ask him to clean them up with a fresh cut. Despite his early passion for it, Zemora didn’t immediately go into furthering his education in barbering or cosmetology school. After high school, he went into the dry cleaning business and stayed there for a portion of his life. “I did dry cleaning for a long time … I managed dry cleaning plants, I went to dry cleaning seminars, but my heart and soul was in barbering,” Zemora
OMAR SANCHEZ / DAILY TITAN
Barber Adrian Zemora cuts a client’s hair amidst Angels memorabilia at Adrian’s Barber Shop in Garden Grove.
said. “I just never knew how to go about going to school to become a barber. I always thought you learned by yourself in order to become a barber.” Zemora eventually dropped the dry cleaning business and sought out to pursue his dream. After a couple years of learning cosmetology and barbering, Zemora graduated from Rosslyn’s Barber College and acquired his license. “I took my test in Whittier and I came back yelling through the freeway, ‘I’m a barber, I’m a
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barber’ and I was on top of the world,” Zemora said. Zemora went back to his barber college as an instructor and worked at another barber shop for a couple of years. After his time in these places, he saw the opportunity to open his own establishment by the name of Adrian’s Barber Shop. Bob Dinsen, former city councilman of Garden Grove and a customer of Zemora’s, donated $3,000 to Zemora to help start his business after he was let go from the barber shop where he
was working at the time. “(Dinsen) wanted to open up a lumber yard (when he was younger) and a gentleman opened up his wallet to help him out. He wanted to do that for somebody if somebody would have done the same thing to him when he was younger,” Zemora said. “I owe him the gratitude that I’m in business because of him.” Zemora also gives back to the community by committing two days each week to cut hair for firemen at all seven fire stations
in Garden Grove. This tradition originally started because firemen would come into his shop during their working hours. As soon as they would get a call, they would be forced to immediately leave. People from Garden Grove complained about the situation and said it wasn’t right for the firemen to be pampered on tax payers’ money. It was then appealed through the city council, Zemora said. SEE CUT
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