Victims of interpersonal violence found healing through personal accounts from students and guests Monday night in Witherspoon Student Center.
Take Back The Night gathered opponents of interpersonal violence — rape, domestic violence, stalking and similar abuse — out of respect for victims and prevention for the future.
Several N.C. State students, who will remain anonymous, told their stories of interpersonal violence. None said that their accounts took place on campus.
It is estimated that 429 students at N.C. State were sexually assaulted last year. Victims are often ignored or doubted by family members and do not report these crimes to the police.
Ashley Simons-Rudolph, director of the Women’s Center, said the event is meant to be a safe place for victims to talk about their experiences in an accepting environment.
“We, as a Wolfpack community, both rally around survivors and work to prevent future incidents,” Simons-Rudolph said.
Though friends and family often doubt victims’ rape accounts, the counseling center, GLBT Center and Women’s Center, all of which were present, said they are here to listen.
Simons-Rudolph said to prevent interpersonal violence, organizations and students must be cooperating.
“It is a time for us to come together and say that interpersonal violence has no place on our campus,” Simons-Rudolph said.
Student accounts displayed how real sexual assault is at N.C. State.
One student said she was forced to have sex with a man whom she had consensually had sex with previously. She emphasized that having a sexual encounter once is not an open invitation for the future.
Many victims were friends with or romantically involved with their assailants and did not expect to be raped.
Anonymous volunteers from InterAct, a victim advocacy group, told their stories of sexual and domestic abuse, offering advice from their recoveries.
“Take back control of your own life,” an anonymous speaker said. “If they don’t love you for who you are, you just need to get stepping.”
The speaker said she was married to a man who was controlling and consistently violent. She had to “literally run away” to leave her abusive husband.
Justine Hollingshead, director of the GLBT Center, reminded students that interpersonal violence is not limited to male-on-female, and currently affects gay and lesbian people as much as heterosexual couples.
Hollingshead said “many think men cannot be victims,” but warned that interpersonal violence is not a one-track issue.
One student speaker, who identified as bisexual, said he was raped by another male student in high school and struggled to cope with the assault for years.
A candlelight vigil was held following the speeches to honor survivors of interpersonal violence.
Sergeant Bill Davis of Campus Police said it takes several moving parts to continue the fight against interpersonal violence.
“It’s not the Women’s Center by itself that can make a change. It is a community together that can make that change,” Davis said.
Sergeant Bill Davis of the NCSU Police Department leads a march to Witherspoon Student Center during the Take Back the Night event Monday evening March 25, 2013. Sergeant Davis later spoke as one of the welcome speakers during the event after the march.
