GCSU women unite to Take Back the Night

About 40 protesters and seven police escorts took over Greene Street on Thursday evening and began the Take Back the Night march to the old courthouse on the corner of Hancock and Wilkinson streets.

Empowering chants like, “Women unite, take back the night!” echoed throughout the streets and off buildings, making pedestrians stop and look on at the marchers.

April is national Sexual Assault Awareness Month. As a result, women and men from the campus community marched through Milledgeville’s streets to congregate at the old courthouse for a night of recognition and to tell their personal stories.

One in six women and one in 33 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest, National Network.

Jennifer Graham, the Women’s Resource Center and Diversity coordinator, has put on the event since 2005 and while it has covered a wide variety of abuse in years past, the focus has been narrowed for this year.

“We are staying true to what Take Back the Night was created for and addressing sexual assault,” Graham said.

The protesters loudly made their way to the courthouse and proceeded to prepare for the survivor speak out session. This year to start the speak out session, keynote speaker Kayleigh Irby, a survivor and junior at Mercer University in Macon spoke to the crowd.

“Two years ago I was violently and sexually assaulted in May 1, 2008. I remember every detail of that day, as any survivor does. I remember going to the museum that morning. I remember the knock on the door. I remember opening it and having my life changed dramatically forever,” Irby said.

Reliving a sexual assault and telling the story to someone can be one of the hardest steps to take in the healing process. According to R.A.I.N.N., 60 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police and victims are six times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sexual assault crimes can have a strong impact on the survivor, both physically and psychologically. The psychological healing process usually takes more time, but speaking about it to others can often help the victim heal.

“It’s like you put Neosporin on the cut to heal it so the bumps and bruises eventually go away. For your psyche, it’s therapeutic and healing to speak out,” Irby said.

After Irby’s speech, the open mic, survivor speak-out session began. With a crowd of a little over 40 attendees, the stories of survival were told to the audience, letting them know they are not alone and in each message the speakers pointed out that speaking out is crucial to healing and acknowledging this type of crime’s severity.

“We are always told you aren’t supposed to talk about these things in public and I think that’s one of the reasons why people don’t really feel the need to come to these events,” senior Meghan Fleming said. “They’re thinking, ‘this is going to make me feel uncomfortable’-Yes it is, but we have to speak out and once you do it opens so many doors to start the healing process.”

Over 20 speakers came up to the mic, spoke in a candid, emotionally-charged way; laying their raw feelings on the crowd, anger, sadness, awareness, support, but most of all a sense of strength.

“This year has been a very impactful year for our campus and I hope that we, as a campus, are able to gather together and shoe the community and whomever else, that we don’t stand for sexual violence on our campus,” Graham said. “Each year presents an opportunity for those women to have some healing-show that their campus supports them.”

In lieu of the past month’s events Assistant Vice President for Pubic Safety Dave Groseclose realizes that silence is not the answer.

“As bad as the Roethlisberger situation is/was,(Take Back the Night) also brings to light an awareness in the community and across our campus. Anything that brings the public’s attention to domestic violence, or violence against women,” Groseclose said.

This rally offers for some the first steps toward healing for survivors.

Take Back the Night offers an environment to learn how to speak out, to take control of their situation and to know that it is not their fault.

“It’s my third time attending but my first time speaking. It’s not as scary as I thought it would be because you realize these people here are not judging you but supporting you in a loving environment. Over time it becomes easier to identify and speak as a survivor. Speaking helps make accepting easier,” senior Andrea Judy said.

Senior Jessica Baker attends this rally each year speaking for her sister and realizes there is only one way to let this issue be known to the community.

“Silence is still agreement, and we are here rallying to end it!”

Posted by Elise Colcord on Apr 23 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry