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NEWS
JAN. 28, 2016
WWW.DAILYTOREADOR.COM
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Tech, city offer support for sex violence By MICHAELA BAYSINGER Staff Writer
Sexual violence is defined as a sexual act committed against someone without that person’s freely given consent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Last year, there were five cases of sexual assault on the Texas Tech campus, one of which was a man who was assaulted,” Stephen Hinkle, administrative captain of the Tech Police Department, said. Sexual violence is a danger for everyone, especially college students. Most people when asked do not know what all is included in sexual violence. Forms of sexual violence include rape, child sexual assault, intimate partner sexual assault, unwanted sexual contact, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, showing one’s genitals or naked body to other(s) without consent, masturbating in public or watching someone in a private act without their knowledge or permission, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website. “Most of the time out here, the victim knows their attacker. Date rape happens,” Hinkle said. Students should make sure to be cautious when going out with someone they do not know. The majority of sexual assaults occur from acquaintances, not a stranger, Michael Henry, the interim deputy
Title IX coordinator, said. It is typically someone who you just met, someone you have dated or are dating who commits the crime. “We follow state law, so if somebody goes out and has been drinking and they are intoxicated and they wake up the next morning and they’re with someone in bed and they don’t remember giving consent and they file a charge then we will treat it just like any other charge. That is pretty much a universal law across the states,” Hinkle said. Most sexual violence cases on Tech’s campus are incapacitated consent issues or not valid consent issues. When you throw in alcohol it makes it a bit more complicated, Henry said.
Last year, there were five cases of sexual assault on the Texas Tech campus, one of which was a man who was assaulted.
STEPHEN HINKLE TEXAS TECH POLICE
Men and women are both affected by sexual violence, according to the NSVRC website. At some time in their lives, one in six women have experienced an attempted or completed rape, and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape. According to The Lubbock Rape Crisis Center’s
website, voiceofhopelubbock.org, every minute there is one sexual assault. Lubbock had a total of 366 rapes, 33 of which were men, in 2014. “There are statistics that the majority of sexual assaults on college campuses are caused by repeat offenders,” Henry said. Ti t l e I X i s a c l a u s e in the higher education amendments of 1972. No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, Henry
said. It means there is no discrimination on gender based on any situation. “Sexual assault is considered a gender based offense because you likely chose your romantic partner based on their gender and if you then assault them based on their gender you are discriminating them based on their gender which is why it fits into Title IX,” Henry said. Henry said there are many places on campus for a student who has been involved in a sexual violence case, such as the Risk Intervention Safety and Education office, which is a semi-confidential reporting place. It is
only required by law to disclose that there was a sexual assault. The name and all other information of the victim would be kept confidential and would be called a Jane or John Doe, he said. Students can also go to the Student Counseling Center, which is a strictly confidential reporting place, Henry said. “If a student who has a friend who has been a victim of sexual violence the student should be there to support their friend as best as they can, and if their friend needs more help try and get them to the student resources that we offer,” Henry said. For any students who
have been victims of any type of sexual violence there are places for them to go. Texas Tech has just implemented a 24-hour crisis hotline 806-742-5555 that students can call for support. Along with that there is the Dean of Students office, the Student Resolution Center and the Lubbock Rape Crisis Center, whose purpose is to provide victims of sexual abuse and assault in Lubbock County and the surrounding communities with free, confidential crisis assistance advocacy and support, according to voiceofhopelubbock. org. Their phone number (806) 763-RAPE (7273). @DailyToreador
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Students educate peers on sexual consent While there are many campus resources that help students with sexual health and other topics related to sex and gender, Texas Tech has various student organizations that talk about these topics from a peer perspective. Casey Kopp, a senior public relations major from South Lake, said Define Your Line is a student organization with the goal of informing students about preventing sexual assault. “It’s about providing sexual education about what’s right and wrong and how to say yes and no,” she said. “We are trying to grow because it is such an important topic.” The organization meets twice a month in the Me-
dia and Communication building, Kopp said, and there are currently 15 members who help develop campaign ideas. Tech students started the organization and hope it spreads to other universities across the U.S., according to the Define Your Line website, and it polls students on their thoughts on different questions about sexual consent. “I think it’s really important that it’s peer-to-peer communication because sometimes at our young age we tend to disregard things that older people are saying,” Kopp said. “I think it really says something when it’s coming from one of your fellow classmates.” The organization often sets up in the Free Speech
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Define Your Line members and Texas Tech students Kiley Cowley and Jeffrey Martinez speak to students about the student-run organization. Members of the organization speak to students throughout the school year, and they survey students on their thoughts and questions about sexual consent. Area outside the Student Union Building, Kopp said, and the members also visit student organizations, fraternities, sororities and athletic teams to provide sexual education. Students are welcome to join Define Your Line, and they can get more information about the organization from its website or Facebook page. People do not often intend to hurt other people,
Kopp said, but there are many different situations on a college campus and students need to be educated on consent to help prevent sexual violence from happening. “ We w a n t p e o p l e t o know it’s OK to openly talk about this stuff,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be awkward or scary, we just want everyone to make safe and good decisions.” @JenRomeroDT