Sparkill, N.Y. - The St. Thomas Aquinas College student-athletes joined the campus club "Thursdays in Black" to put a stop to sexual assault and domestic violence. After a small ceremony in which a speaker from the Rockland Family Shelter addressed the crowd on the alarming statistics and the need to assist local victims, the attendees walked around campus with lights to support the cause.

Students were made aware of the following alarming statistics concerning sexual assault.

Thursday's in Black Statistics for Collegiate Students:
-80% of the victims of sexual assault are under the age of 30.
-In a survey of high school students, 56% of girls and 76% of boys [some of whom may be incoming college freshmen] believed forced sex was acceptable under some circumstances.
-On average, at least 50% of college students’ sexual assaults are associated with alcohol use.
-1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
-41% of college women who are raped were virgins at the time.
-48.8% of college women who were victims of attacks that met the study’s definition of rape did not consider what happened to them to be rape.
-42% of rape survivors told no one about the rape.
-3% of college men report surviving rape or attempted rape as a child or adult.
-In a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control of 5,000 college students at over 100 colleges, 4% of men answered "yes" to the question "In your lifetime have you been forced to submit to sexual intercourse against your will?"
-8% of men admit committing acts that meet the legal definition of rape or attempted rape. Of these men who committed rape, 84% said that what they did was definitely not rape.

Provided by the St. Thomas Aquinas Sports Information Department.