On July 15, James Gialloreto was arraigned and charged with with first-degree rape, first- degree robbery, second-degree assault, first- degree burglary, unlawful use of a weapon and strangulation towards a female neighbor.
The catch: this occurred on the corner of Pacific Avenue and A Street—about 3 blocks from Pacific University campus.
Despite it being within close proximity of Pacific students, there are students who are unaware that this crime happened.
“I did not know that; that’s a little shocking, actually,” Senior Disney Sato said. “I didn’t think that would happen, though I guess no one ever really thinks that would happen.”
There are many possible reasons why this hasn’t been given a lot of attention by Pacific students.
“I’m guessing that this is the kind of a touchy topic,” Sato said. “Not a lot of people would like to talk about it, especially in public places, and only those that do know about it will share it with other people that are close to them
and not really spread the word much, so that’s why I probably haven’t heard about it.”
This incident occurred on June 10, 2015, when the 41-year-old Forest Grove woman, heard knocks on her apartment front door, and opened to find Gialloreto in a ski mask.
He forced himself in her apartment, threatening the woman with a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other, and proceeding to sexually assault her.
Its incidents like this that act as motivation to emphasize the idea of consent on the Pacific campus.
“I think that we have a really serious problems with sexual assault on college campuses across the country,” Campus Wellness Coordinator Kathleen Converse said. “And I think we absolutely need to be talking about it, not in a ‘let’s be scared of this’ way, but in a ‘let’s do something about this’ kind of way. I really think it’s up to each of us, each individual student to change this, and I believe we can change this.”
Campus Wellness is constantly working to make sure that students are educated on this subject as much as possible.
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