“Stand Together for Justice” Sexual Assault Protest to take place at Gonzaga

[todaysdate]

By Kelly Mathews

On Tuesday at noon at the Crosby Student Center, a protest will be held to raise awareness of sexual assaults at the Gonzaga University campus.

Organizers of the event said turmoil has risen on campus because students say sexual assault victims’ cases were mishandled by campus administration.

Sarah Hartwig and Corinne McClure, who are involved with the women’s studies department, are leaders in feminist organizations on campus, helped organize the Take Back the Night event and are involved with the Gonzaga feminist publication, Fringe. John Winslow, student of religious studies, is involved with feminist activities on campus as well.

The problems run deep, when it comes to protecting victims adequately on campus, according to Hartwig and McClure.

They said that some victims who have revealed their information in the past to administration were told their information, such as where they live would remain private and confidential, only to have their cases revealed publicly online.

Katie Schmarr, local poet and student at Gonzaga and one of the protest organizers, started a private blog asking victims to share their stories anonymously so they could get a scope for the range of tragedy. Schmarr and her fellow advocates knew it would be bad, “But it was just horrifying.” MCClure and Hartwig said in unison.

One  of the cases were, included gang rape.

But it wasn’t just how tragic the stories of the victims were that motivated the students to action, they said, it’s that they weren’t protected by Gonzaga properly, and made to feel safe.

Attackers weren’t made to leave campus or put on probation according to Hartwig and McClure, this meant victims had to deal with possibly seeing their attacker on campus and worrying about another attack. Not only that, Hartwig, said, but the attackers’ friends would call the victims in some cases and threaten the victim.

“This is an outrage,” said McClure, who is a future law student. “We want transparency and efficiency from the administration.”

Hartwig and McClure and Winslow said the ultimate goal is to change the university’s sexual assault policy as well as have the University issue an apology to all of the victims.

“We want to see support groups and more aid for victims that protect their confidentiality. This is a Jesuit University, one that claims it’s justice oriented. We want to see justice done,” McClure said.

The other problem, said Winslow, is that while the administration is beginning to work with students to implement better policies, in regards to rape there simply isn’t enough being done to protect what is to him one of the most important tenets of the Catholic Faith — the inherent dignity of each person.

That’s why, when it comes to social change, Winslow said, “Catholic identity affects how GU sees itself and people. We have to take into account half our students are Catholic. Our administration, including our board of trustees is very Catholic, which includes priests and  nuns.”