Preventing and Raising Awareness For Sexual Assault In Kent

Reporting done by Alex Lomicka and Karen Scott

“I came out of the bathroom and this guy said, ‘Hey I got a drink for you do you want it?’ I said, ‘Yeah sure.’ I took a sip of it, and nothing crossed my mind at all because he was really nice,” Megan said.

Megan similar to many college students likes to go out and have a good time with her friends, but she never thought accepting a free drink one night from a guy who seemed nice would turn into a hazy memory.

“This was my freshman year of college,” Megan said. “The last thing I remember was my roommate asked me to go to the bathroom and get a drink. “I ended up being fine, but I don’t remember anything else.” It was scary but the next day my roommate asked me what happened, you weren’t yourself you were so off. I’m ok now, I’m just glad nothing happened.”

Below is an audio piece explaining more on our research of sexual assault on college campuses.

Officer Tricia Knoles Community Resource Officer for Kent State Police Department said that although most rapes are not stranger rapes many of them do involve people under the influence.

“I wouldn’t say there is a common trend a lot of time there is a common trend a lot of times there is a possibility of alcohol being involved in that. People start making choices because of the alcohol intoxication,” Knoles said.

Even though the experience for Megan was sad and life-changing, she turned it into something positive. She knows her situation could’ve been worse. This experience prompted Megan to get involved with Green Dot, one of the many organizations in Kent that help students who have been sexually assaulted or have been put in compromising situations. 

Erika Gallion, a Kent State grad student and an intern at Kent State’s Women’s Center, one of the many resources for sexual assault victims, said Green Dot is “educating those on campus to take preventative measures for before something happens rather than having to be reactive after something does.”

The Women’s Center has crisis intervention services for issues such as sexual assault on campus and it holds events to raise awareness for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence with events such as Walk A Mile In Her Shoes. It also offers students counseling and legal services if they want to go that route with reporting an incident, Gallion said.

Gallon said that more people have come in to the office in the past year as sexual assault is associated with less embarrassment than it used to be.

“People were more unsure what was conceptual and what wasn’t, but people, without outreach are more comfortable coming in and disclosing what happened,” Gallion said.

While people are getting more talking about instances, it does not mean enough people are being reported and the victims brought to justice.

“Every reported rape we investigate to the best of our ability.” “Typically it’s up to the victim if they want to prosecute,” Knoles said.

Renee Jackson Silence Prevention and outreach coordinator for TownHall II agrees.

“We explore their options with them, unfortunately, there are not many convictions so it’s hard to go through that process and then not feel like you got justice through that,” Jackson said.

TownHall II offers to go to the police station with victims to file reports and the hospital for rape kits as moral support, Jackson said.

Sexual assault is not something anyone should have to deal with alone and TownHall II and the Women’s Center on campus are highly committed to making sure no one does.

Such a high percentage of sexual assault cases happen with someone the person knows which sometimes makes it harder to report and seek out services.

[pullquote]”There have been very few, a handful that have been raped by someone they don’t know. I think the statistic is 2/3 of the time, but honestly we see it way more than two thirds of the time. I would say it’s at least 90% of the time when we have clients,” Jackson said.[/pullquote]

With statistics as high as that it can seem overwhelming, but movements for sexual assault and awareness has spanned far beyond Kent’s campus.

Pact5, according their website is, “a national movement to prevent sexual assaults and rapes in colleges. What is different about PACT5 is that it believes the documentary form, when produced by students, can create powerful stories that can change potentially tragic behavior patterns.”

There are some ways to reduce your risk of sexual assault. According to RAINN,The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization. See the chart below.

Megan, since her encounter has been smarter about going out, she said.

“A lot of people are careless, including myself obviously. Whenever I go out now and I don’t see someone make a drink I make them remake it or I won’t take it. A lot of the time that doesn’t work they’re just like ‘ok don’t drink it.’ that’s fine. I’ve turned down drinks.” Megan said. “I now watch people as they’re talking to me at the bar and if they have friends with them. It almost happened to my roommate actually. This guy was talking to her and he was with his friends. His friends got her a drink. I didn’t see them put anything, in it but I didn’t see the guy make it. I had a bad feeling I don’t know if anything was in it, but I just said she cant take that. She almost did and I just told her don’t drink that. She said ok and put it down. We got out of there.”

If you or someone you know was sexually assaulted and is need of assistance please call The National Sexual Assault Hotline (via Pact5 website) : 1-800-656-4673