Workshop promotes safety
PEARL SHEETS
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: News
In an effort to bust the myths that loom around rape, the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency emphasized the truths about sexual assault in a workshop at the Student Activities Center yesterday.
Without coherent consent to sexual acts, California law states that anyone who proceeds with carnal activity has already committed an act of rape.
"Lots of times, you verbally, don't have to say, 'stop' or, 'don't.' Your consent is positive act and attitude," Mariss Sarria, bilingual prevention educator for SACA, said.
By positive act and attitude, Sarria meant that one must be willing, capable and must consent for a sexual act to take place; one must also be allowed to stop if at any time they become uncomfortable or simply do not want to continue that act.
"We estimate that only 26 percent of all rapes are ever reported," Ashleigh Klien, director of outreach for SACA, said. "90 percent of rapes occur between people that know each other. It's not that we don't know who the perpetrator is and that's why we're not reporting, it's that we know who the perpetrator is. 9 out of 10 rape survivors know their attacker."
About 25 percent of women will be raped while in college and one in four women will be assaulted over a lifetime, which means that 25 percent of women will have experienced some sort of sexual assault in their life, Klien said.
Following the two sexual assaults that were reported in fall of '07 and spring of '08, and the attempted assault this passed September, nerves remain on edge for some on campus.
"(Police) don't really know the details. They don't know if it's a student or a passer-by," Valerie Wagner, safety and health workers compensation technician, said. "We have these bus-lines that run through. (Police) think that (the attackers) are just coming through, stopping and then they get on a bus and go. They know the campus because they've scoped it."
Narrow hallways and walkways, at certain times of the day, may be quiet and sometimes there is hardly any foot traffic in the afternoon, Wagner said.
Without coherent consent to sexual acts, California law states that anyone who proceeds with carnal activity has already committed an act of rape.
"Lots of times, you verbally, don't have to say, 'stop' or, 'don't.' Your consent is positive act and attitude," Mariss Sarria, bilingual prevention educator for SACA, said.
By positive act and attitude, Sarria meant that one must be willing, capable and must consent for a sexual act to take place; one must also be allowed to stop if at any time they become uncomfortable or simply do not want to continue that act.
"We estimate that only 26 percent of all rapes are ever reported," Ashleigh Klien, director of outreach for SACA, said. "90 percent of rapes occur between people that know each other. It's not that we don't know who the perpetrator is and that's why we're not reporting, it's that we know who the perpetrator is. 9 out of 10 rape survivors know their attacker."
About 25 percent of women will be raped while in college and one in four women will be assaulted over a lifetime, which means that 25 percent of women will have experienced some sort of sexual assault in their life, Klien said.
Following the two sexual assaults that were reported in fall of '07 and spring of '08, and the attempted assault this passed September, nerves remain on edge for some on campus.
"(Police) don't really know the details. They don't know if it's a student or a passer-by," Valerie Wagner, safety and health workers compensation technician, said. "We have these bus-lines that run through. (Police) think that (the attackers) are just coming through, stopping and then they get on a bus and go. They know the campus because they've scoped it."
Narrow hallways and walkways, at certain times of the day, may be quiet and sometimes there is hardly any foot traffic in the afternoon, Wagner said.
Be the first to comment on this story