Northern highlights problems of sexual abuse

April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month, so students and faculty at Montana State University-Northern are working to bring attention to the issue.

“It gives our campus and community members a chance to say this is not OK,” said Amber Spring, a counselor at Northern who is taking a leading role in campuswide activities meant to draw attention to the issue.

Spring said she has been involved with raising awareness about rape and sexual abuse since 2014.

Activities include wearing ribbons to show opposition to sexual abuse and solidarity with survivors; screening documentaries; and showing powerful visual displays.

Funding for these activities comes from the Montana Rape Prevention and Education Program, a four-year grant received by Northern and several other colleges aimed at reducing incidents of sexual abuse.

This will be the first time in several years that there have been activities marking the month, Spring said.

Last week was Teal Ribbon Week, where people were encouraged to wear teal ribbons to show solidarity with survivors of sexual abuse.

Spring said this week is White Ribbon Campaign where men wear a white ribbon and can take a pledge to never “commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.”

People can get white ribbons at the information desk in the student union building, the coffee cart at the Vande Bogart Library and Student Central in Cowan Hall. Signed pledges will be hung on the wall of the hallway leading from the SUB to the food court.

Spring detailed the other activities taking place throughout April:

• The Clothesline project will be on campus April 18 and 19 from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. The project is a visual display where people decorate shirts to help bring awareness and show solidarity with the survivors of sexual abuse

• There will be a screening of the documentary “Matthew Shepard Is a Friend Of Mine,” at 6:30 p.m in Hensler Auditorium Wednesday, April 20. The film chronicles the story of Matthew Shepard, a 19-year-old college freshman in Laramie Wyoming, who was lured from a bar, abducted, beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in 1998 because he was gay. The crime shocked America and brought attention to hate crimes committed against people based on sexual orientation. The screening is sponsored by the MSU-N Safe Zone.

• Honor Denim Day is April 27: People are asked to wear denim in protest of the Italian Supreme Court’s reversal of a 1999 rape conviction. The conviction was overturned because the woman was supposedly wearing jeans that the justices concluded were so tight that the the woman had to help the rapist remove them, thereby implying that she consented. The event is meant to spark discussion about misconceptions about sexual abuse

• The Silent Witness Initiative will be on display at various on campus locations throughout April. The visual display, which has been in existence since 1999, consists of 78 life-sized cutout representations of Montana women and children murdered by a domestic partner in incidents that go back as far as 1990. It is meant to heal and inspire hope for survivors and victims of domestic violence.