Policy Information

1. Go to a safe place and speak with someone you trust. Tell this person what happened. If there is any immediate danger, contact the Trenton Police Department or call 911
2. Consider securing immediate professional support (e.g.: counseling, victim advocacy, medical services, etc.) to assist you in the crisis
3. If you are on campus during regular business hours, you may go to the Dean of Student Affairs in the Alexander Student Center for counseling referral, support and guidance.
4. For your safety and well-being, immediate medical attention is encouraged. Further, being examined as soon as possible, ideally within 120 hours, is important in the case of rape or sexual assault. The hospital will arrange for a specific medical examination. To preserve evidence, it is recommended that you do not bathe, shower, douche, eat, drink, smoke, brush your teeth, urinate, defecate or change clothes before receiving medical attention. Even if you have already taken any of these actions, you are still encouraged to have prompt medical care, and evidence may still be recoverable. Typically, if police are involved or will be involved, they will obtain evidence from the scene, and it is best to leave things undisturbed. If you are involved in transmission of items of evidence, such as to the hospital, secure them in a clean paper bag or clean sheet, to avoid contamination.
5. If you have physical injuries, photograph or have them photographed, with a date stamp on the photo. Record the names of any witnesses, and their contact information. This information may be helpful to the proof of a crime, to obtain an order of protection or to offer proof of a campus policy violation. Try to memorize details (physical description, names, license plate number, car description,), or write detailed notes if you have time and the ability to do so. If you obtain external orders of protection (e.g. restraining orders, injunctions, protection from abuse), please notify the Dean of Student Affairs or the campus Title IX Coordinator so those orders can be observed on campus.
6. Even after the immediate crisis has passed, consider seeking support from the North Central Missouri Mental Health Center. Contact the Dean of Student Affairs if you need assistance with College-related concerns. The Dean will also assist in any needed advocacy for students who wish to obtain protective or restraining orders from local authorities.
7. The College is able to offer reasonable academic accommodations, changes to living arrangements, and other supports and resources as needed by a victim.

Complainant: A person who alleges that he or she is the subject of sexual misconduct, or of retaliation related to the complaint or investigation thereof and can be an NCMC employee, student, volunteer, guest, visitor or third party affiliated with the institution.

Consent: An active process where there is clear and unmistakable voluntary agreement, expressed in mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in sexual activity. Silence or absence of resistance does not imply consent. Informed consent cannot be gained by force, coercion, threat, by ignoring or acting in spite of the objections of another, or by taking advantage of the incapacitation of another, where the respondent knows or reasonably should have known of such incapacitation. Informed consent is also absent when the activity in question exceeds the scope of informed consent previously given, i.e. past consent does not imply future consent. Consent to engage in sexual activity with one person does not imply consent to engage in sexual activity with another. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. In the state of Missouri, consent cannot be provided if the person lacks the mental capacity to authorize the conduct charged to constitute the offense and such mental incapacity is manifest or known to the actor; or it is given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, intoxication, a drug-induced state, or any other reason anyone under the age of seventeen cannot give informed consent.

In evaluating whether consent was given, consideration will be given to the totality of the facts and circumstances, including but not limited to the extent to which a complainant affirmatively uses words or actions indicating a willingness to engage in sexual contact, free from manipulation, intimidation, fear, or coercion; whether a reasonable person in the respondent’s position would have understood such person’s words and acts as an expression of consent; and whether there are any circumstances, known or reasonably apparent to the respondent, demonstrating incapacitation or fear.

Dating Violence: Violence committed by a person— (A) who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and (B) where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: (i) The length of the relationship; (ii) The type of relationship; (iii) The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. If a dating relationship is asserted by the reporting party, the assumption of a dating relationship will be made. Missouri law does not specifically define dating violence, but conduct of this nature is covered by Missouri’s definitions of domestic violence and domestic assault.

Domestic Violence: Felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction receiving grant monies, or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction.

This would include the following categories:

• Incidents between persons who are spouses
• Incidents between persons who are former spouses
• Incidents between persons who have a child in common regardless of whether or not they have been married or have resided together in the past
• Incidents between persons (of any age) related by blood
• Incidents between persons (of any age) related by marriage, excluding spouses
• Incidents between persons, not married, but presently residing together
• Incidents between persons, not married, but who have resided together in the past
• Incidents between persons who are or have been in a continuing social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature

Missouri’s definition of domestic violence can be found at Mo. Rev. Stat. § 455.010. Under Missouri law, domestic violence also includes the crime of “domestic assault” which can be found at Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 565.072-565.074.

Force: Physical force, violence, threat, intimidation, or coercion.
Incapacitation: The physical and/or mental inability to make informed rational judgments. States of incapacitation include, without limitation, sleep, blackouts, flash-backs, when a person is unconscious, or because of an intellectual or other disability that prevents the person from having the capacity to give consent. A person can also be incapacitated due to the use of drugs or alcohol. Where alcohol or other drugs are involved, one does not have to be intoxicated or drunk to be considered incapacitated. Rather, incapacitation is determined by how the alcohol consumed impacts a person’s decision-making capacity, awareness of consequences, and ability to make informed decisions. The question is whether the respondent knew, or a sober, reasonable person in the position of the respondent should have known, that the complainant was incapacitated. Because incapacitation may be difficult to discern, students and employees are strongly encouraged to err on the side of caution; i.e., when in doubt, assume that another person is incapacitated and therefore unable to give consent. Being intoxicated or drunk is never a defense to a complaint of sexual misconduct under this policy.

Intimidation: Spoken or written words or other types of electronic communications, physical actions including gestures, or threats of retaliation that would cause a reasonable person to be put into fear or fear harm to property.

Respondent: A person whose alleged conduct is the subject of a complaint under this policy and can be an NCMC employee, student, volunteer, guest, visitor or third party affiliated with the institution.

Retaliation: Any adverse action, to include employment or educational action, taken against a person because of the person’s participation in a complaint or investigation of discrimination or sexual misconduct. Includes, but is not limited to, threat, intimidation, reprisals, and/or adverse actions related to employment or education.

Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature and includes sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, physical, visual, or digital conduct of a sexual nature when: (A) Submission to such conduct is made or threatened to be made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual’s employment or education; (B) Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used or threatened to be used as the basis for academic or employment decisions affecting that individual; or (C) Such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s academic or professional performance or creating what a reasonable person would perceive as an intimidating, hostile, or offensive employment, education, or living environment. Examples of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to, unwelcome conduct such as: (1) comments of a sexual nature, (2) sexually demeaning statements, questions, jokes, or anecdotes, (3) display of sexually explicit materials in the workplace, (4) remarks about sexual activity or speculations about sexual experiences, and (5) whistling or other sexually explicit sounds or gestures. The more severe the conduct, the less need there is to show a repetitive series of incidents to prove a hostile environment, particularly if the harassment is physical.

Sexual Violence: Sexual violence is a particularly severe form of sexual harassment. Sexual violence includes physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent because of his or her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity, because he or she is below the minimum age of consent in the applicable jurisdiction, or because of his or her incapacitation due to the use of drugs and/or alcohol. Other types of conduct may also constitute sexual violence. Examples of sexual violence include, but are not limited to, the following: (A) Rape or sexual assault: sexual intercourse (anal, oral, or vaginal) by a man or woman upon a man or woman without consent; (B) The use of force or coercion to effect sexual intercourse or some other form of sexual contact with a person who has not given consent; (C) Unwilling sexual penetration (anal, vaginal, or oral) or other sexual touching with any object or body part that is committed by force, threat, intimidation, or otherwise without consent; (D) Having sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious because of drug or alcohol use; (E) Hazing that involves penetrating a person’s vagina or anus with an object; (F) Sexual exploitation, which includes, but is not limited to, the following: sexual voyeurism, use of the “date rape drug” to effect sexual intercourse or some other form of sexual contact with a person, knowingly transmitting a sexually transmitted disease such as HIV to another person through sexual activity, secretly videotaping or photographing sexual activity where the other party has not consented, disseminating sexual pictures or videos of another person without consent regardless if the pictures or videos were obtained with consent, or prostituting another person.

Stalking: Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to— (A) fear for his or her safety or the safety of others; or (B) suffer substantial emotional distress. Missouri’s definition of stalking can be found at Mo. Rev. Stat. § 455.010 and § 565.225. Cyberstalking is a form of stalking. Cyber-stalking is a pattern of threatening behaviors and unwanted advances directed from one individual to another over the Internet and other electronic, online and computer communications. It can involve, but is not limited to: threatening/obscene emails and text messages, online verbal abuse, and tracing a victim’s computer and internet activity.