CARE promotes sexual assault awareness

'Rape is not Sex' creates awareness of campus assaults through dramatic presentation

Campus Assault ResponsE held its annual "Rape is Not Sex" presentation in Grafton- Stovall Theatre Monday in efforts to create a heightened awareness of sexual assault on college campuses.

"The main goal of this presentation is to create a greater awareness of sexual assault and that it does occur at JMU," said senior Erica Walter, CARE's presentation coordinator. "However, we did a couple things different with this year's skits. The campus scene is different — last year we used a party theme — but this year we used a campus theme and we also used statistics that are true for JMU."

CARE is a student run organization committed to helping victims of sexual assault. Operating 24 hours a day through a pager-voicemail system, trained members provide resources, referrals and crisis intervention to persons directly or indirectly affected by sexual assault.

Hillary Wing, associate director of sexual assault prevention at the women's resource center, started the presentation by saying, "One of the saddest comments I get from students is … 'I sat through a program like 'Rape is Not Sex,' but I kept thinking it wouldn't happen to me' or 'Yes, I heard you speak, Hillary, during August orientation for first- year students, but that only happens to someone else. I can't believe it would happen to me.' Well, it does happen, and it happens frequently around this campus and many other campuses' across the country."

Throughout the presentation, CARE members along with members of One in Four, an all-male organization dedicated to decreasing the incidence of rape and sexual assault, performed various skits, which voiced individual human rights and portrayed the struggle and recovery of sexual assault victims.

In one skit entitled "Campus Scene," students acted out typical college social scenarios, while other students announced sexual assault statistics like: "94.5 percent of women who are sexually assaulted know their attacker," "49.5 percent of sexual assaults that happen at JMU occur in the attacker's home" and "One in four JMU women will be the victim of rape or attempted rape by the time they graduate college."

In response to the presentation, freshman Laura Henderson said, "I actually thought that the presentation was kind of sad, just to know that one in four women are sexually assaulted."

For more information about CARE, contact Walter at walte2ea or attend CARE's weekly meetings Wednesdays at 9 p.m. in Taylor 311.