On Thursday, April 11, Campus Recreation held their annual “Take Back the Night” event with the Take Back the Night Foundation where they expressed empowerment and support through a dance class in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The event was held from 7:30 to 9 p.m., and no registration was required for all students and community members to stand for the essential right for women to walk alone at night without having to doubt their safety. Resources were made available such as on-person alarms, sexual health items, snacks and informative pamphlets for participant needs.

Halie Darby is the assistant director of student wellness within Campus Recreation and oversees programming on campus related to the 10 dimensions of wellness, emotional, spiritual, cultural, intellectual, financial, environmental, occupational, physical, social and digital. Samarah Zamora is a graduate assistant of student wellness in Campus Recreation and is currently in a master’s program for community and behavioral health, she assisted with the awareness gathering alongside Darby.

“This is a special month for people to take back the night, take back the empowerment that comes from events like this,” Zamora said. “It adds to that prevention element as well.”

Last year, Campus Recreation celebrated the “Take Back the Night” event through a yoga festival named “Shine Your Light.” Wanting to draw more attention to the conversation, this year they decided on a dance class to raise the excitement that comes with empowerment. Other notable events in the awareness month were “Walk a Mile in their Shoes” and the newly added “Denim Day,” which is celebrated nationally in solidarity with a sexual assault victim case that took place in Italy.

(Contributed/takebackthenight.org)

“The court ruled that that individual must have consented because she was wearing tight jeans,” Darby said, “We now wear denim to acknowledge that denim or tight jeans or specific types of clothing are not a form of consent.”

Darby mentioned that the women of the court legislation in Italy also participated in Denim Day, which this year will fall on Wednesday, April 24. From Italy to Johnson City, every year the nation stands against victim blaming and focuses on educating others about the misconceptions surrounding sexual violence.

For more information on Campus Recreation’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month events and how to get involved, visit their Instagram at @etsucampusrec or their website at etsu.edu/students/campusrec/.

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