I am writing in response to Alyssa Pinsker's letter published yesterday.

In her letter, Pinsker states "Instead of reprimanding the female students for being so careless as to assume their safety in what the university itself calls 'Happy Valley,' we'd like to support the victims..."

Nowhere in the article she referenced is there any blame placed on any victims of the assaults which occurred recently.

These assaults occurred and they were horrible incidents. The young man who committed the assaults is now dead, which is a tragedy.

From recent reports, it appears that the young man was suffering from depression and appeared to be under the influence of a variety of substances at the time the assaults took place. He was lonely and craved companionship. Do these circumstances justify the assaults? Of course not, but they do provide an insight into the mindset of the young man at the time the assaults occurred.

It also shows that not all people are rationally behaving human beings and that sometimes there are circumstances outside of anyone's control that cause them to act in ways that a rational human would not. For Pinkster to suggest that the implied message in telling students that female students should lock their doors is that sexual assault is inevitable is absurd.

The message in telling female students to lock their doors is safety. The message in telling female students to lock their doors is that there are people in the community who, whether by choice or by circumstance, are not rational and may not act in a rational manner. Advising students to lock their doors, report strange activity, and not allow strangers into their dorms is simply a step toward their own self-protection and safety.

those simple safety steps had been followed, perhaps these terrible assaults would not have occurred and a young man would still be with us today, receiving the help he apparently needed so desperately.