Photo and Story by William Bray / Contributing Writer
The June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students held a sexual assault simulation on Tuesday titled “In Her Shoes” in the Sam H. Ingram Building to raise awareness and foster student involvement.
Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.
Rape is the one of the most underreported crimes and the most psychologically damaging. Domestic victimization is correlated with a higher rate of depression and suicidal behavior.
In the simulation, students are forced to go through “the system,” while being yelled at by both babies and secretaries.
“We want students to really understand the process they have to go through in housing and social security and welfare,” said Barbara Scales, the director of the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students and the coordinator of the event.
Many people do not know the underlying causes of these types of abuses, and there can be factors that seem irrelevant. Some students that participated thought money and economic circumstance were not factors in domestic violence and sexual assault cases. Dr. Callie Rennison, a University of Colorado Denver professor, performed a recent study based on Department of Justice statistics showing that young women who are not in college are at greater risk of rape than women enrolled in school. In an editorial written in “The New York Times,” Rennison said she found evidence that women in poverty are at much greater risk of sexual violence overall.
The June Anderson Center wishes to create new campaigns to raise awareness and scholarships. Despite their efforts to increase the advantages for those born in unfavorable circumstances, many of the workers at the center such as Myra Beasley feel as if the funding from MTSU has been insufficient.
“Poverty is a big factor, and the dean wants to cut our funding,” said Beasley.
Some of the interns who volunteered to help run the event, such as Morgan Murphey and Austin Pettit, feel events like the simulation should be occurring more regularly to help victims realize that it is acceptable to speak up about sexual assault.
“I think that awareness should be raised for both the one-in-four girls being assaulted out of us, as well as the one-in-six boys,” said Savannah Benjamin, a chemistry major.
With the majority of domestic abuse and sexual assault being unreported, Scales feels awareness and support are the most influential things the campaign needs from students. Despite the potential budget cuts, she has a full lineup of events prepared for April and expects students to attend to raise awareness and share experiences.
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I think this article is as amazing as the subject it speaks of. The fact that we had an event like the ‘In Her Shoes’ one at The June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students. I, like many other young women I’m sure, had not even began to grasp the idea of all of the problems that tentacle out in the wake of abuse. The facts and statistics that were placed in front of the people participating, was eye-opening and horrifying. Like the article said, I really feel like this event inspired girls and boys not to be so afraid of speaking out about abuse. It put them, as the event says, “In Her Shoes”, and although this is a situation that no one can even begin to imagine themselves in, it is one girls and boys need to be aware of. Before reading this article, I read the article ‘Count to Five: The Story of Campus Sexual Assault’ by Samantha Wycoff and I think it’s so vital for articles like these to be published on campus for students to see. Articles and events like ‘In Her Shoes’ provide us with potential experiences to prepare us for the worst case scenarios as well as giving us the statistics. Articles like ‘Count to Five’ give us the emotion. They show us how all we have to do is count one in five and one of those women will be a sexual assault victim and they show us the story of survival. I am so glad that we are able to pick up Sidelines to read articles like this, so we stay aware and learn how to survive.
I think this sexual assault seminar is a really good idea because like the article said it is one of the most under reported crimes out there. I believe sexual assault happens almost every day. It is especially important for students to know that they have a voice and shouldn’t be afraid to speak out if they have experienced something.
The first step in solving a problem is bring awareness too it. That is what the seminar is doing and the fact that this is occurring on a college camps is also beneficial because it gets the demographic that is affected most by this which is the youth.
It’s not fair that this program could potentially go away due to budget cuts from the dean. Women need something like this to know that they are not alone.
Though we can never understand the physical and mental distress of sexual assault, having a simulation gets us closer to understanding and sympathizing with victims.
Reading this gave me so much information that I didn’t know such as women who don’t go to college are more likely to be sexually assaulted than women who do go to college. Also poverty plays a big role in sexual misconduct.