New tool offers additional sexual violence reporting options for Stanford students

Stanford students now have a new tool for documenting and reporting sexual and relationship violence.

With support and advocacy from ASSU student leaders, Stanford has adopted the online platform Callisto for a three-year trial period. It will offer students a new avenue, in addition to existing ones, for documenting and reporting experiences with sexual assault or other forms of sexual and relationship violence.

The system has been set up in recent days, and an email to Stanford students on Wednesday informed them that it is now ready for use.

“The structure of Callisto aims to provide agency to survivors of sexual assault and relationship abuse, giving them options as they think through these very difficult issues,” said the email, sent by Catherine Glaze, Title IX coordinator; Carley Flanery, director of the Office of Sexual Assault & Relationship Abuse Education & Response; Helen Wilson, director of the Confidential Support Team; and Lauren Schoenthaler, senior associate vice provost for institutional equity and access.

“If you ever have the need, we hope you will consider using Callisto. If a friend ever comes to you in need, we hope you will mention Callisto as an option available to them. We’ll be evaluating Callisto over the pilot period, and we welcome the feedback of students.”

A nonprofit organization of the same name developed Callisto in an effort to address two challenges with sexual assault reporting. Some survivors decide to report an assault after the passage of time, but the details of the experience may no longer be fresh in their memories. In addition, repeat offenders cannot be identified if victims do not report them, and studies show that a large majority of victims do not make a report.

Callisto allows a student to document an experience with unwanted sexual conduct and time-stamp it in a secure web environment. If a student isn’t ready to submit a report to the university immediately, the system preserves the information.

At any time, a student can return to the system to submit a report to the university. In addition, students can choose an option in which an incident is reported to the university only if the same offender has been identified by another student in another incident.

Students also can record multiple experiences. If someone is in a harmful relationship, for instance, each occurrence of relationship violence can be documented in the system.

Stanford students can still report unwanted sexual conduct to the university by being in direct touch with the Title IX Office. These reports lead to investigation and adjudication under the Student Title IX Process, a pilot process now undergoing review.

Stanford also strongly encourages anyone who experiences a sexual assault to make a report to the police. A police investigation can go forward simultaneously with a Title IX investigation by the university.

Stanford offers a range of support resources for anyone who has experienced unwanted sexual contact. The Confidential Support Team is available as a first stop to provide professional, trauma-informed counseling for those seeking support and wanting to better understand their options.