José Montoya, a UTRGV multidisciplinary studies junior, said events that promote sexual assault awareness are beneficial for the campus community to help reduce the levels of crimes on campus.
“I think it is important to not only teach prevention but also to teach men that it is not OK, or even in some cases, women, that it is not OK to sexually harass or assault people in any circumstance,” Montoya said about Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
He said any type of event or conversation is helpful to spread awareness on what to do about sexual assault crimes.
“A lot of times, we have cases where people are sexually harassed or assaulted on campus and we don’t hear a lot about it, but it sometimes goes unreported out of fear of getting in trouble or having the blame placed on you,” Montoya said.
Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (rainn.org).
RAINN states that one out of every six American women has been a victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault and one in 33 American men have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.
Priscilla Palacios, a program coordinator for the Office for Victim Advocacy & Violence Prevention (OVAVP), said Sexual Assault Awareness Month is important since it “lets people know there are resources available for them.”
“It brings awareness to a topic that is very taboo in our area,” Palacios said. “It … [lets] them know that it’s OK to talk about their situation and not feel ashamed of what they’ve gone through and not having to go through it alone. There are others that might have or might be going through what they have gone through.”
Sexual assault victims are more likely to suffer from suicidal or depressive thoughts, according to rainn.org.
Palacios said one of the things sexual assault victims can do is visit the closest hospital and ask for a medical examination.
“If they wish to file a police report, they can do that as well,” she said. “They can report it here at the university to our Student Rights and Responsibilities … if they choose to do that as well.”
The program coordinator said Health Services offers free STD testing.
To contact UTRGV Health Services, call 665-2511 for Edinburg or 882-3896 for Brownsville, or send an email to healthservices@utrgv.edu.
The OVAVP will collaborate with several campus organizations to host a series of events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, tables will be set up for the Sexual Assault Awareness Month kickoff event at the University Library on the Edinburg campus.
From 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the OVAVP will host the “Let’s Talk about Consent” panel-based presentation in Student Academic Center 1.101 building on the Edinburg campus. The purpose of the event is to clarify what consent is and answer questions.
From 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, the McAllen Public Library will partner with UTRGV and Mujeres Unidas to host the Survivor’s Poetry Workshop for sexual assault victims with the purpose of teaching them how poetry can help to ease the stress and pain caused by trauma associated with sexual assault. No registration is required and no news media will be in attendance due to the nature of the event.
The McAllen Public Library is located at 4001 N. 23rd St. For more information, call 681-3000.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 11, during the It’s on Us Sexual Assault Awareness Month Fair, several university programs will provide information about sexual assault in the Edinburg campus library lobby.
From 7 to 8:30 p.m. April 15, the McAllen Public Library will host Embrace Your Voice, in which sexual assault survivors will be able to recite their poetry to other survivors. It is not mandatory to speak and no registration is required. No news media will attend.
If survivors are not comfortable with sharing their stories personally, they can give their works to the organizers who will read the stories for them anonymously, Palacios said.
At 11:30 a.m. April 17, the Alcohol Consent Fair will be hosted in the Student Union veranda on the Brownsville campus by several programs. The event will take place April 18 in the Student Union on the Edinburg campus.
Palacios said they hope to display the “What Were You Wearing?” exhibit in Edinburg during the Alcohol Consent Fair. The exhibit took place at South Texas College last month and consisted of clothes sexual assault victims wore when they were sexually assaulted.
“We are hoping to bring it onto our campus and have it displayed here at the Union during that time as well,” she said. “For sure, we are having it on the 18th but we haven’t been able to decide on other days available to keep on displaying it.”
Amanda Quintanilla, a victim services specialist from the UTRGV Police Department, told The Rider that University Police will host a free Rape Aggression Defense System Training starting the week of April 23 on the Edinburg campus. The course is exclusively for women and is open to faculty, staff and students.
“It is a self-defense class where they have different tactics, you know, they will have videos and they will have commentaries and different tips and ideas on how to be cautious and how to be careful,” Quintanilla said.
She said the training is usually divided into three sessions.
“The first time we have our meeting, you know, it’s just the backstory of what RAD is, and a lot of the lecture part,” Quintanilla said. “From there, we do the action part where the officer will put on a full suit, like the body gear … and then the other officer will teach you different methods with your hands, with your feet and different ways of kicking and so forth, and then you implement them and you practice them for the next two days.”
She said the exact days, locations and times for the events are still being discussed.
One of Quintanilla’s responsibilities is to assist students in the process of filing police reports and help them understand the system better.
To conclude the university’s observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Denim Day will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 25 in the Student Union veranda in Brownsville and the Student Union in Edinburg.
On this day, people are encouraged to wear jeans as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault, according to denimdayinfo.org.
The Denim Day campaign was spurred by a legal incident in Italy where a sexual assault perpetrator was found not guilty by the Italian Supreme Court because the female victim was wearing very tight jeans. The judge implied that the victim had to help the actor remove her clothing, making her not a victim anymore, according to Palacios.
Surveys conducted by the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities show that the first person sexual assault victims usually turn to is a friend, according to Jaime Richeson, a program manager for Student Rights and Responsibilities.
“It is very important that we educate our student body in reference to what services we provide on our campus and what is also available off campus,” Richeson said. “If we have students that are victims of these type of incidences … then, students, their fellow friends, can actually guide them in reference to what services are available on campus and where to go off campus.”
He said if students witness a crime related to sexual assault, they have different reporting mechanisms.
“It depends on their skill, ability at that point in time. If they want to directly get involved or if they want to indirectly get involved,” Richeson said. “We promote active bystanding, especially through the Superhero project. We try to educate all our freshmen in reference to what an active bystander is and how they can recognize the situation and choose to respond either directly or indirectly.”
Contact Student Rights and Responsibilities at 665-5375 in Edinburg or 882-5141 in Brownsville, or email srr@utrgv.edu.
He said there are different sanctions for students who commit sexual assault.
“Sexual assault, itself, it depends because there is a variety in reference to the definitions in our policies,” Richeson said. “We are very strict in reference to our sanctioning. They are more likely looking to suspension. Our highest level of sanctioning we put on any cases like these is expulsion. In other words, they can’t come back to this university.”
The sanctions can vary depending on the case, according to Richeson.
Female college-aged students (18-24) are 20 percent less likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and male college-aged students (18-24) are 78 percent more likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, according to rainn.org.
James Loya, UTRGV assistant chief of police, said there are two different punishments for sexual assault perpetrators.
“It’s a second-degree felony. So, in a second-degree felony, if you are found guilty, it is an imprisonment of not less than two years, but not more than 20 years,” Loya said. “And then, you have aggravated sexual assault. Aggravated sexual assault means if they caused a serious … injury when they sexually assaulted somebody or if they exhibited some type of weapon during the sexual assault, and that is actually a first-degree felony. And then on the aggravated one … is imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 99 years.”
He said every time a student is involved in an incident of significant nature, he or she is referred to the dean of students.
Only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police, which means about two out of three go unreported. Only 20 percent of female student victims, ages 18-24, report to law enforcement, according to rainn.org.
Loya recommends students to be aware of their surroundings to protect themselves.
“There was a time when [sexual assaults] were committed by strangers but … a lot of the times now, the victims do happen to know the perpetrators,” he said. “So, it’s one of those things that you always have to kind of have your guard up and make yourself aware of what is it that is going on around you.”
Eighty-six percent of sworn campus law enforcement officials have legal authority to make an arrest outside of campus grounds, according to rainn.org.
The assistant police chief said students should not trust other people so quickly.
“Be more suspicious of people and figure out exactly what their intentions can be,” he said. “It’s not one thing that can totally prevent these incidents from happening, so the only thing that we can say is for the people to be aware.”
Loya said people should let their relatives or friends know where they are going in order to have a safety plan.
Palacios said besides sexual assault, there are other problems that are also addressed during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
“Sexual assault, of course, is going to be highlighted more because it is the awareness month, but we still touch upon domestic violence, dating violence, stalking,” she said. “We do highlight sexual assault because of the month, but we still talk about all the different services that we provide.”
Students can contact the OVAVP at 665-8287 in Edinburg and 882-8282 in Brownsville, or email confidentially at ovavp@utrgv.edu.
Quintanilla recommends students to email police@utrgv.edu.
Loya advises students to dial 911 in case of an emergency.
“Even though if you are on campus or off campus, 911 is going to get you the help,” he said.
Montoya said it is important that students report sexual assault cases.
“It is nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “It doesn’t make you look any less of a decent person. … I think it is important to … let the university know what is going on and to make sure that they follow through. … If you get assaulted, there are resources available. There is counseling available and there is campus police and security to help you through it.”
