The ETSU Counseling Center will kick off its Red Flag Campaign to promote awareness during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The campaign is a product of the OASIS programming arm of the Counseling Center. “It’s a college campaign and the focus is to increase awareness about relationship violence – dating and sexual violence in particular,” explained Rebecca Alexander, OASIS program coordinator of the ETSU Counseling Center. The Red Flag Campaign will introduce college students to the concept of bystander intervention, the idea that the community as a whole – and not the victim alone – is affected by rape and sexual assault.

“It encourages relationship violence to become an issue of the entire college community,” Alexander said. “We’re trying to take the scope beyond the victim and the perpetrator and into community responsibility and awareness.”

Alexander explained that while rape and sexual assault awareness usually centers around women, men and same-sex relationships should not be excluded.

According to Alexander, 20 to 25 percent of women will experience rape or attempted rape. And out of those women, nine out of 10 of them will not tell anyone about the rape, she said.

“If one in four college dorm rooms were being broken into, it would be a huge deal,” she said. “When one in four women are being raped, why is that acceptable?”

The campaign is focusing on bringing this and other questions to light.

It will begin Wednesday, Oct. 21, with a showing of “DREAMWORLDS 3,” a documentary that exposes the MTV culture and the messages it reveals about relationship violence.

The campaign will culminate with the display of red flags on which students can write their own personal feelings about sexual assault and rape.

The Counseling Center will set up a booth in the Atrium on Oct. 22-23 at which students can participate in the campaign by writing their experiences with or thoughts about sexual assault and rape on red flags. The red flags will be displayed on the lawn behind the Amphitheater.

Alexander will also be conducting workshops and classroom presentations that focus on differences between healthy and dangerous sexuality to promote awareness and encourage bystander intervention.

Author