Things are going on around campus this week intended to spark discussion about a topic that very few want to talk about: sexual assault. A student organization known as SHAPE, Sexual Health and Alcohol Peer Educators, is sponsoring Sexual Assault Awareness Week Feb. 25 – March 1.
According to senior Rich Strathman, one of the members of SHAPE, the group organizes a week of events, typically at the end of February, in order to “raise awareness about assault, that it does happen and that it happens on this campus.”
As part of the week’s events, SHAPE put signs up in all of the Residence Halls about sexual assault with stickers for people to place on the poster if they or someone they know has been a victim of sexual assault.
“Actually seeing numbers like that within a community can be a sobering experience,” said Dave Capretto, co-chair of SHAPE. “We need to get the word out about how serious this is.”
On Wednesday night the group sponsored a program titled “He Said/She Said.” The program was held at 7 p.m. in the Saint Louis Room of the Busch Memorial Center and featured a male and a female speaker. Approximately 50 people attended.
The first speaker was Katie Koestner, a date rape victim and advocate for sexual assault awareness. She told her story of going off to college and beginning a dating relationship that ended with rape. Koestner has been speaking about her case and sexual assault for seven years and has appeared as a panelist on several news programs, as well as on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“Maybe you think I was naive,” Koestner said during her speech. “I suppose I was, if naive is thinking you can be alone in a room with someone you like and not have sex.”
Senior Beth Barsanti described Koestner’s presentation as powerful.
“Katie’s way of presenting her story was really unique. It was scary to see how easily something like that can happen,” Barsanti said. “It would have been nice if more people were here to hear her story.”
The second speaker was Brett Sokolow, an attorney who specializes in campus-security cases. His portion of the program drew attention to the role that alcohol often plays in date rape, especially on college campuses. Sokolow presented a series of facts about a particular case, and the audience was to act as the jury.
“I’ve never had one audience make a unanimous vote on the guilt of this guy,” Sokolow said. “It shows how difficult an issue this really is.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of the rapes and sexual assaults reported to police by women of all ages are committed by friends or acquaintances. The CDC estimates that as many as 95 percent of the rapes that occur on college campuses are committed by someone the victim knows.
The Saint Louis University Department of Public Safety crime report defines a forcible sex offense as “any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent.” In 2000, there were zero cases of forcible sex offenses reported to DPS.
The last event of Sexual Assault Awareness Week will take place this evening at 7 p.m. in Kelley Auditorium.
The group will be showing the film Boys Don’t Cry, a controversial 1999 film that deals with gender identity and sexual assault issues. There will be a discussion following the film, led by a representative from the YWCA Sexual Assault Center.
