As a stressed high school student, I'm always thinking about college. Wait—that's normal, right? I couldn't possibly be the only one who does that. Well, I was browsing through my Twitter feed and found a post about sexual assault allegations against Columbia.

This really astounded me because for the longest time, Columbia has been my unattainable dream college and seeing that really crushed me. There was no chance that I could go here anymore, it wasn't safe for me. I could be in danger if I went to that school now that I thought of it... Wait what? Since when was that important to me. Last time I checked I was on top of the world, the only thing worrying me about college was my GPA and my SATs.

But when thinking about college, before I think of anything else, I must check how safe it is for me to attend that school. It is an unspoken agreement I hear from my parents; "Do you really want to go there? In that area?" I must take into account how many sexual assaults against women have occurred, the school's standing on rape, look into the fraternities. But why should I have to do this, why must girls learn to protect themselves and stay away from situations that could result in rape? See, there is a point in all girl's lives when we are forced to reconsider what we are wearing because it is proactive and distracting for boys and men. As girls we must learn how to protect ourselves on the street, avoid alleys and try and stay in groups. But why are we teaching ways to avoid rape and sexual assault rather than teaching to NOT rape? We promote prevention in all things, alcohol and drugs but not rape.

We should be teaching young girls and boys to should respect for one another, to respect when the word no is uttered from either parties, it is absolutely not an invitation. We are taught this preschool, when we are babies even. No means no. Plain and simple. Since, when did that change? Just because we grow older, we are able to invalidate the meaning of words. Do basic life lessons suddenly lose their meaning in the real world?

We should allow young girls to be able to live in a world where they don't need to worry about rape. A world where they don't need to take self-defense classes just in case or have pepper spray just in case. A girl should be able to go to any college they want and not have to think about the danger of rape or think about whether their job may cause sexism to arise. A girls life shouldn't be dominated by the fear of being by themselves but of hope for the future.