BLUFFTON – Almost one hundred students, faculty, and community members gathered in passion and solidarity Friday evening on the Bluffton University campus to support the prevention of sexual assault.
This includes not only empowering individuals by teaching them to recognize violent conversations, such as those which invalidate survivors’ stories or uphold the stigma of sexual assault, but how to end normalizing these negative behaviors.
Motivational speaker Tim Mosseau discussed his personal experience dealing with sexual violence and workplace sexual harassment. He also advocated that sex education courses should turn the focus away from abstinence and instead teach students how to have healthy sexual relationships. He said doing this would create a safer culture for schools and universities.
“Feeling safe is not something that happens by chance,” it has to be built into an organization’s culture, Mosseau says.
“I want the survivors of sexual assault to feel represented and believed. Currently, students are under-reporting sexual misconduct cases through the Title IX program at Bluffton University,” said event organizer Cierra Long.
Title IX coordinator, Mark Bourassa, told Long that “conversations (about sexual misconduct) need to continue to happen.”
After Mosseau’s talk, students began a Take Back The Night march around the campus, chanting “Tonight! Tonight! Take Back the Night,” and “No means NO!” in support of survivors of sexual assault.
This was the first-ever TBTN march at Bluffton. Coordinators held a banner with “Take Back the Night” printed on it, and behind them trailed a mix of students, faculty, and staff holding hand-made activist signs.
“We marched past all of the residence halls on campus. Students were looking out their windows and doors, and cars driving by were honking their horns. Everyone stopped and looked. We definitely got attention, which was the goal,” Long said.
“This is where I felt the most love,” said Long. “A crowd member shared, ‘This event was the first time I felt supported as a survivor.’ Some cheered. Some cried. Everyone began embracing and validating one another.”
According to the Take Back the Night Foundation’s website (takebackthenight.org):
• 1 in 3 women worldwide experience some form of sexual violence or intimate partner violence.
• 1 in 6 men experience sexual violence.
• 2 in 3 transgender people have been sexually assaulted.
• People in the LGBTQIA+ community are more likely to experience sexual violence.
• Less than 50% of victims report these crimes.
The event was organized by Bluffton’ University’s TBTN Committee and P.E.A.C.E. Club in recognition of April as sexual assault awareness month.
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