Members of the campus community gathered in Whitley Auditorium Wednesday, April 13 to speak out against sexual assault and other violence committed against women.
More than 300 people packed Whitley Auditorium for the event, which included presentations by local law enforcement and sexual assault response organizations, Smith Jackson, dean of student life at Elon, and musical performances by individual students and student groups.
Student Amanda Stokes helped organize the event and welcomed other students.
“Tonight, we’re inviting you on a journey that survivors of sexual violence know well, a journey of awareness, pain, survival and hope,” Stokes said. “Tonight is a night of empowerment.”
Student organizer Jason Pressberg reminded men of their responsibility to help end sexual violence and that victims often feel victimized again when they seek help.
“Too often, the survivors are interrogated, rather than the perpetrators,” Pressberg said. “There’s no end to the list of excuses. Tonight reminds us that there are no excuses” for sexual violence.
Crystal Sharpe, a sexual assault investigator with the Graham police department, spelled out what law enforcement can and cannot do in an investigation.
“Law enforcement’s role is a lot different than what people think it is,” Sharpe said. “We have to be objective in our investigation and that sometimes means we can’t be as compassionate at a particular moment as we’d like to be. But we can give victims a voice to say this is what happened.”
The program also included remarks from Deana Joy with Crossroads Sexual Assault Response and Resource Center in Burlington. Victims of sexual violence also gave personal and powerful accounts of their experiences.
The event also featured a display by The Clothesline Project, showing shirts made by victims of sexual assault and their families to demonstrate the pain and suffering they feel. The Clothesline Project works to educate the public about the scope of sexual violence.
The first Take Back the Night march in the United States was held in 1978 to protest violence against women, particularly sexual violence.
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