A panel entitled “How to Support a Survivor” was hosted Monday as part of Take Back the Night Week 2017 by the organization Take Back the Night.
Take Back the Night is a foundation and nonprofit with a chapter at the University, according to Damaris Paris, a fourth-year College student and co-chair of the Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition Major Events Committee. The University’s chapter of Take Back the Night is under the umbrella CIO called the Sexaul Violence Prevention Coalition.
Take Back The Night Week 2017 is a week “to empower sexual assault survivors and educate the broader community about the issues surrounding sexual assault, and also in general gender-based violence,” according to Paris. The panel was one of the first events of the week, and saw about 50 attendees.
Five students spoke on the panel, including fourth-year College student Emily Woznak. She said she was sexually assaulted one night after going out with her friends from high school to the birthday party of her assailant. She said he was her best friend from home whom she had known since kindergarten.
Woznak said she decided to take legal action against this individual.
“But what happened was not right, and I couldn’t go forward knowing that. So I reported it to the police the next day, and went through a PERK kit, which is an excruciatingly uncomfortable procedure,” Woznak said. “I got a protective order through U.Va. I got a protective order through Charlottesville city.”
Other panelists, who wish to remain anonymous, also said they were sexually assaulted at the University.
Two experts also spoke — Asst. Dean of Students Alex Hall and Dr. Amanda Trent, clinical director of the Sexual Assault Resource Agency in Charlottesville. Hall said there were resources available to the University community in response to sexual assault or any crisis.
According to Hall, the Office of the Dean of Students can support survivors who wish to report what has happened to them and those who do not wish to report.
“We try really hard to make resources and sources of support available to survivors without obligating a report, if that’s not what they want to do,” she said.
Hall said counseling resources are one way to provide support to those who do not wish to report their assault. However, she also said that if a survivor began to hint at having been sexually assaulted, she will warn the survivor that as a responsible employee, she is obligated to report their assault to the Title IX office.
“I say [to those who do not wish to report], ‘In any way possible, I will try to provide resources for you without obligating a report, if that’s what you want,’” Hall said. “Academic accommodations are a great example of that.”
Trent also spoke and said empathy, rather than sympathy, is important while listening to survivors.
“Validate and empathize … are really important words,” Trent said. “‘Validate’ means that you are showing that you appreciate and value what a person is saying to you, and how they feel.”
A first-year College student named Hannah, who asked her last name to be anonymous, said it is best to be sensitive around the subject of sexual assault due to the high incidence of sexual violence on college campuses.
“It can happen to anyone. If you think … it doesn’t happen to girls like you, it can,” she said. “And the likelihood that one of your friends has been raped is pretty high.”
Woznak said friends of survivors should give “patience and as much love and support as you can give, and [remember] that it takes a really long time to heal from something like this, and it takes a really good support network.”
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