Dating violence on college campus’ is a prevalent issue. 1 in 4 women, as well as 1 in 7 men, have reported experiencing dating violence. This includes rape, stalking and physical violence.
In a way to combat it, York College of Pennsylvania’s Student Senate hosted an event with the people of Sexual/Relationship Violence Prevention on campus. The event was mandatory and required all organization leaders to be in attendance.
During the event, we participated in a “game,” if you will. There were two readers, a decision maker, and everyone else were observers. (In total, there were about 8-10 groups and about 4 different scenarios.) The most important person was the decision maker, whose job was to prevent any harm coming to one of the readers.
One groups scenario dealt with a girl who caught eyes with a guy at the library one night. She sees him again at another location and then at a party she attends. In the end, she is ultimately raped by the guy.
Another scenario involved a guy who wanted to break up with a girl. (She was not here for being single.) The most shocking thing about this scenario was that the girl, as a way to keep the guy, tied weights to her ankles and attempted to drown herself. The guy jumped in the pool to save her.
There was a third one where a female was being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. It was a case of one person moving on and the other was stuck in the past. Her friends and family came to her rescue and kept the guy away from her.
All of these are examples of dating violence.
The point of this meeting was to talk about dating violence, the signs and what exactly is considered dating violence. The sad truth of it is that everyone knows someone who has experienced dating violence, whether it was a friend or themselves personally.
The statistics are scary to think about and even more horrifying to hear about in person. To get rid of these statistics on campus’ around the country, maybe even around the world, people have to become educated on the subject.
If possible, start up a Sexual/Relationship Violence Prevention team on your campus. Or, if there already is one, have them come to the meeting and educate your members on dating violence.
You’d be surprised how a little step as such could make a huge impact.