JD Schein / PHOTO EDITOR
April has been declared Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One in four college-age women will be a victim of sexual assault while in college. Auburn University’s Safe Harbor and the Women’s Resource center have hosted several events to raise awareness.
Auburn University’s Safe Harbor and the Women’s Resource Center have co-hosted several events on campus to raise awareness for dating violence and all forms of sexual abuse.
Safe Harbor is a part of Student Counseling Service.
The organization is committed to reducing men’s violence against women by increasing awareness about dating/domestic violence, stranger rape, acquaintance rape, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence.
Raising awareness on college campuses is essential because one in four college-age women will be a victim of sexual assault at some point in their college careers. At least 80 percent of victims knew their attackers. This is known as acquaintance rape.
“One event we hosted this month was The Red Flag Campaign,” said Amye Still, the special projects coordinator for the women’s resource center. “This campaign is used to raise awareness for the warning signs of an abusive relationship. We displayed 200 small red flags on the Cater Hall Lawn on April 13 and 14 as a physical reminder of what to watch for in relationships, such as emotional abuse, excessive jealousy, coercion and stalking.”
Heather May’s Fundamentals of Directing Class presented the theatre production “Scenes not Screams” in the Foy Hall Ball Room April 14 to kick off awareness month.
Several short scenes were displayed about sexual assault and domestic violence.
“We also had a Clothesline Project Display where art students helped us by designing T-shirts with graphic messages and illustrations addressing the problems of violence against women,” said Julie James, Safe Harbor staff member. “The purpose is to have a visual display to increase awareness of the impact of violence. We wanted to celebrate a woman’s strength to survive and to courageously break the silence that often surrounds this issue.”
The Clothesline Project displayed several hundred T-shirts painted by sexual assault survivors and supporters.
They were hung on Cater Hall Lawn April 15 and 16.
“To wrap up the events in April, we hosted our annual Take Back the Night march and rally,” said Nancy McDaniel, Safe Harbor staff member. “We marched on campus and then several speakers came to the rally. We had a great turn-out, and I think we educated many students on the affects of sexual assault and dating violence, and what to do when it happens.”
I was abducted, beaten and raped by a stranger. It wasn't a neighbor, a coach, a relative, a family friend or teacher. It was a recidivist pedophile predator who spent time in prison for previous sex crimes; an animal hunting for victims in the quite, bucolic, suburban neighborhoods of Lincoln, Rhode Island.
I was able to identify the guy and the car he was driving. Although he was arrested that night and indicted a few months later, he never went to trial. His trial never took place because he was brutally beaten to death in Providence before his court date. 34 years later, no one has ever been charged with the crime.
In the time between the night of my assault and the night he was murdered, I lived in fear. I was afraid he was still around town. Afraid he was looking for me. Afraid he would track me down and kill me. The fear didn’t go away when he was murdered. Although he was no longer a threat, the simple life and innocence of a 14-year-old boy was gone forever. Carefree childhood thoughts replaced with the unrelenting realization that my world wasn’t a safe place. My peace shattered by a horrific criminal act of sexual violence.
Over the past 34 years, I’ve been haunted by horrible, recurring memories of what he did to me. He visits me in my sleep. There have been dreams–nightmares actually–dozens of them, sweat inducing, yelling-in-my-sleep nightmares filled with images and emotions as real as they were when it actually happened. It doesn’t get easier over time. Long dead, he still visits me, silently sneaking up from out of nowhere when I least expect it. From the grave, he sits by my side on the couch every time the evening news reports a child abduction or sex crime. I don’t watch America’s Most Wanted or Law and Order SVU, because the stories are a catalyst, triggering long suppressed emotions, feelings, memories, fear and horror. Real life horror stories rip painful suppressed memories out from where they hide, from that recessed place in my brain that stores dark, dangerous, horrible memories. It happened when William Bonin confessed to abducting, raping and murdering 14 boys in California; when Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered Megan Kanka in New Jersey; when Ben Ownby, missing for four days, and Shawn Hornbeck, missing for four years, were recovered in Missouri.
Despite what happened that night and the constant reminders that continue to haunt me years later, I wouldn’t change what happened. The animal that attacked me was a serial predator, a violent pedophile trolling my neighborhood in Lincoln, Rhode Island looking for young boys. He beat me, raped me, and I stayed alive. I lived to see him arrested, indicted and murdered. It might not have turned out this way if he had grabbed one of my friends or another kid from my neighborhood. Perhaps he’d still be alive. Perhaps there would be dozens of more victims and perhaps he would have progressed to the point of silencing his victims by murdering them.
Out of fear, shame and guilt, I’ve been silent for over three decades, not sharing with anyone the story of what happened to me. No more. The silence has to end. What happened to me wasn't my fault. The fear, the shame, the guilt have to go. It’s time to stop keeping this secret from the people closest to me, people I care about, people I love, my long-time friends and my family. It’s time to speak out to raise public awareness of male sexual assault, to let other victims know that they’re not alone and to help victims of rape and violent crime understand that the emotion, fear and memories that may still haunt them are not uncommon to those of us who have shared a similar experience.
For those who suffer in silence, I hope my story brings some comfort, strength, peace and hope.
My novel, Men in My Town, was inspired by these actual events. Men in My Town is available now at www.Amazon.com
For additional information, please visit the Men in My Town blog at www.meninmytown.wordpress.com