 "Photo: Emma Racioppo")
Approximately 300 students huddled around a podium in O'Neill Plaza last night, listening in silence as three of their peers shared personal stories about rape and sexual assault. "Take Back the Night," co-coordinated by the Women's Resource Center (WRC), the Lynch School of Education, and the Alcohol and Drug Education Program, was the capstone event of the 2008 Concerned About Rape Education (CARE) campaign.
Rape and sexual assault are not issues to be taken lightly at Boston College. From 2004-2006, there were a total of 22 reported forced-sex offenses. Of these, 17 were on campus, and 13 were in residence halls; the number of unreported rapes and assaults may have been much higher. "One of the issues here and most colleges is that the number of sex assaults that are underreported," said Interim Dean for Student Development Paul Chebator. "One of the issues here and most colleges is that the number of sex assaults that are underreported," he said.
Last night, though, three such victims stood up in front of a rapt audience and shared their stories out loud.
Though the sea of supporters was mostly female, the men in the crowd stepped forward to recite a pledge to try to make a difference for survivors of sexual violence.
"We will no longer allow rape and sexual assault to be passed off as just a women's issue," they said in unison. "We will no longer stay silent and be complacent. We are here, and we are here because we are beginning to understand."
The men were part of a group known as the Brotherhood for Change; this week, they initiated the white ribbon campaign for men who pledged never to commit violence against women.
"These issues are not just for women alone," said Jonathan Sege, a member of the Brotherhood for Change and A&S '09.
Lieutenant Frederick Winslow, commander of the Sexual Assault Investigative Unit at the BC Police Department, stood and thanked the women present for standing up for themselves.
"Why does a male police office take on this task?" he asked. He answered this question by telling the story of his sister, who was raped by a family member at the age of 16.
"I saw what it did to her. What I do today I do for her. In some small way, I know what survivors deal with on a day to day basis," he said.
The first of the three survivors to take the podium told how she was raped by people she considered friends, by people she said she thought were nice.
"I tried to convince myself it wasn't real. I pretended for a week," she said. Her serious injuries, however, could not be ignored, and her friends convinced her to confront what had happened.
When she was raped for a second time, she again kept her story a secret. The two rapes, however, were too much to handle, and she spent time in psychiatric therapy against her will.
"I was being treated like I was crazy, and it made me feel like I was," she said.
Though she was eventually able to confront and accept her experiences, they linger with her to this day.
"At first," she said, "I couldn't distinguish between the damage to my body and the damage to my heart and mind."
The second victim's rape was not committed by a friend or a stranger on the street, but by people who should have loved her - a family member and a boyfriend. Of the experience, she said, "I screamed no, but I knew he wouldn't listen. I said no, but I knew he didn't hear me. So I stopped yelling."
The third woman to stand in front of the crowd spoke for Joan Diver, a woman who is no longer able to do so herself.
Joan, a family friend of the student, was murdered on Sept. 29, 2006 on a bike path in her quiet farming town, just outside of Buffalo, N.Y. She had gone jogging, and when she didn't show up to pick up one of her four sons from daycare, her husband immediately recognized something was wrong and called the police.
Two months later, there was a breakthrough in the case - police were able to test some of the murderer's sweat, and he was identified as Altemio Sanchez, a serial rapist who had been terrorizing the Buffalo area for years.
"The night I'm taking back," said the woman at the podium, "is actually a September morning."
After spending months looking over her shoulder, she said, "I'm taking back the space I gave up in fear. I'm taking it all back, repackaging it, and giving it to you."
After the survivors shared their stories, the audience raised glow stick "candles" in solidarity.
"It's very emotional," said Caroline Mullin, a member of the WRC and A&S '08. "There are a lot of tears, and it takes some unwinding to come down from it."
The event, though, focused not just on the stories shared in O'Neill Plaza, but on every past or future rape on BC's campus, and on encouraging victims who have suffered from sexual assault to ask for help.
"In the past, Take Back the Night has caused students to come out about their own issues with sexual assault. People are very surprised. The fact that people can speak about their experiences is very impressive, and it's eye-opening that they can find three students every year who have stories like this and are willing to share. There are survivors among us," Mullin said.
Chebator and Mullin both emphasized the need to be aware of the possibility of rape or sexual assault in an environment where alcohol is constantly abused.
"Alcohol impacts people's judgment, and students need to be aware of that. This is true for men as well as women," Chebator said. "We need to remember that we are a community and we need to look out for one another."
Chebator is a member of SANet, one of the many resources BC offers to victims of sexual assault.
"SANet," he said, "is a group of trained adults and students on call 24 hours a day who will respond to a victim of sexual assault."
These counselors will accompany a victim to a hospital, make sure they are safe and comfortable, and assist with any academic, social, residential, or judicial issues that may arise.
He stressed that nothing is ever forced on someone who turns to SANet for help.
Other resources on campus include the BCPD, University Counseling Services, and the WRC.
The best resource, however, may be simple prevention.
"Sharing these stories is really powerful," Chebator said. "It lets people know that things like that can happen at BC. There's an illusion of safety at BC, and that holds true with respect to what could happen in a situation where alcohol is being abused and people make bad decisions or worse, are victimized."
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