This country is all about short bursts of concern for recent cases of injustice. The bursts last about two weeks and then go away. It hides from headlines and, what you once found on the front page of a newspaper, is now hidden away on the ninth page.

Cases such as the Cincinnati Zoo putting their gorilla, Harambe, to sleep or the Brock Turner rape case, or the Orlando shootings – which are still fairly new – have all faded away into the back pages. Most of these were popular for a week at the most and then simply pushed under the rug as if they had a happy ending and everyone was left unharmed and content with the answers they were given.

One of the cases that particularly hits home, with teenagers getting ready to go into college, is the Brock Turner rape case. It’s disgusting – most simply put. This man, completely responsible and capable of his actions, decided to take advantage of an unconscious, drunk girl. Yes, drinking is bad. There’s no doubt about that. But we shouldn’t be teaching girls to be terrified of their fellow men. We shouldn’t be more accustomed to teaching girls to carry pepper spray than teaching a human not to rape or to hurt someone.

Granted, there will always be bad people in this world, and yes, we should teach people how to defend themselves from those bad people. But why are we so much more used to teaching women to go to the bathroom together so that they can defend each other if a man attacks? Why are we so used to telling women not to get drunk or to cover up so that they don’t get raped? Why aren’t we teaching our children that raping people is bad?

College is a time of experimentation and freedom to make your own decisions. Drinking and smoking is a given for most college students. Whether it be a part of the social scene or just to escape the stress of classes for just the night, students may drink and have fun and party with their friends.

Now, imagine yourself in their shoes. You’re young and naive and have your whole life ahead of you. One night, like most teenagers during nights on the weekend, you go to a party with your friends. You have one too many beers and black-out. As you try to wake yourself up during the night, still hazy from the alcohol and a soon-to-be hangover is already setting in, you suddenly feel something. You turn and look. There’s a boy hovering over you, violating you in a way you never wanted him to. He runs away.

You wake up the next day. None of your friends remember what happened to them, but you remember every detail clearly in your mind. It haunts you. Every single day you go to class with that in your mind. Every single day, you see him on campus, laughing with his friends as if he hadn’t ruined your life. You filed a report to the police, but they told you that you shouldn’t have gotten drunk. Then, one day, you turn on the news and see his face. He’s been arrested for the crime you reported. You expected he gets years in prison for hurting you so traumatically, but then you hear the sentence. He’s only getting six months, but the judge already adds his early release with good behavior. He’ll only get three months. He only gets three months in prison while you have to suffer with the memories of how he violated you for the rest of your life.

Brock Turner is a rapist, plain and simple. As a tweet that has gained popularity states, “if someone’s a rapist and an athlete, they’re not an athlete who made a mistake, they’re a criminal who can also swim.”

His father’s way of gaining sympathy for Turner was that he had Olympic swimming dreams. Thankfully, Turner has been banned by USA swimming. So what is his excuse now? What is his excuse for raping a young woman who went out to have a fun time?

Turner’s victim has decided to remain anonymous, representing rape victims all across the nation. They have written a letter, addressing the issue, stating, “even if the sentence is light, I hope that this will wake people up… I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for us to speak even louder.”

This case is more than just the Stanford victim. This affects every single woman, whether they’re going to college or not. As a former student of Bullitt East, Haley Steinmetz wrote, “your victim goes far beyond that one innocent girl; in fact, you have found a way to affects girls everywhere, a way to make us all fall victim to being afraid.”

This case is not over. It should not be swept under the rug. We can’t let this horrible case fall to the sidelines with every other tragedy that we let be forgotten.