The headlines, the reports and the studies – sexual assault is a pervasive issue on college campuses. Survivors of violence and abuse are often left feeling unheard, isolated and traumatized, but one SJSU student clings to the hope of action and compassion from the campus community.
A software engineering junior, who prefers to remain anonymous because of Title IX concerns, said she felt unsafe walking to class after being sexually assaulted as the accused perpetrator was also on campus.
“Seeing, maybe from far away, someone who kind of looks like them, I would instantly get this surge of anxiety and try to turn the other way,” the student said. “Sometimes I would just completely freeze in the middle of walking to class.”
Unfortunately, she’s not the only student who has had this experience.
In a 2018 Association of American Universities survey of about 182,000 university students, 13% reported non-consensual sexual contact by force or with inability to consent since their university enrollment.
Ellen J. Lin, an SJSU Counseling and Psychological Services licensed psychologist, said the trauma sexual assault survivors experience can leave lasting effects.
Those who survive sexual assault can sometimes experience triggers, which Lin described as something that reminds a person of a traumatic event.
“It could be smell, it could be sound, it could be music, it could be a person moving a certain way,” Lin said. “It could be the type of car if there was a car involved.”
She said being questioned on what led to an assault and reliving the trauma can make survivors feel alone.
“What makes it even more difficult actually, because they feel isolated and they’re not able to talk about [their experiences], [is] particularly [when] people around them don’t believe them or they start to question [survivors] about what happened as if they’re being interrogated,” Lin said. “That makes it way, way harder.”
The anonymous student said SJSU’s Title IX process and questions were difficult.
“Having to sit in an office and see the person who assaulted me, their name, pop up just on paper and being asked, ‘oh, what were you wearing and were you under the influence of any drugs or alcohol,’ that was all just really, really hard to relive,” she said.
While she felt isolated and missed the on-campus experience during the pandemic, realizing she was safe from her alleged assailant was comforting.
“Knowing that person [was] still on campus everyday and that I might see them or run into them was a lot for me mentally,” the anonymous student said. “I’ve been grateful for this time away from campus.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers conducted a National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey in 2015 and found one in three U.S. women have experienced sexual violence, stalking and/or physical violence.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline reported 2,000 average daily calls pre-pandemic. The number plummeted to around 950 daily calls in the
pandemic’s first two weeks, according to an April 3, 2020 Guardian article.
However, this isn’t because abuse has stopped.
YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley, a local nonprofit that provides a support hotline and other resources, also reported a decrease in calls when the pandemic began.
The 24/7 hotline helps survivors and victims of all genders experiencing domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault.
Andrew Rivadeneyra, the nonprofit’s crisis support and counseling manager, said this was because of limited technology access, a shifting world and unsafe home conditions, not because of reduced abuse or violence.
“During [the beginning of March 2020], we had a lot of clients, we had a lot of callers, calling [the support hotline] from outside of the home, like on walks to groceries or on walks to the parking lot because home was no longer really a safe place,” Rivadeneyra said.
Nandini Ray, manager of the Bay Area nonprofit Maitri, said the organization experienced a similar drop in calls during the same time period.
Maitri promotes gender equity and offers holistic approaches on how to live independently and build healthy relationships for South Asian domestic violence survivors, according to its website.
Ray said some women who experience domestic violence, especially those under constant threat, face physical and mental health issues.
“If a person is living under constant fear, agony, helplessness, then that person cannot have a peaceful mind,” Ray said. “It is very much possible that they face anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, panic attacks and other forms of maladies.”
“This is why it’s important for survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse and other traumas to seek independent and group therapy,” Rivadeneyra said.
He said individual therapy is ideal for processing traumas with a trained professional while group therapy can offer a safe community.
“What group therapy offers is the ability to be with survivors, to be in a shared safe space with other survivors,” Rivadeneyra said. “Sometimes what can be immensely healing for people is the ability to express and share their story, share their experiences with other people that are safe.”
For the anonymous student, therapy and finding solidarity with other survivors were crucial for her to process and cope with what happened.
She said the SJSU Gender Equity Center’s event “Reclaim the Narrative” specifically helped her.
“[It was] kind of like this open mic night, where you could sign up, you go up and you just talk about an experience of assault or violence,” she said. “It was specifically geared towards sexual assault and that was super powerful.”
She also said events like Reclaim the Narrative should continue, not only to help victims, but to educate the SJSU community.
“I think that more events like that are really crucial to help individuals, survivors, but also help the environment on campus be more open to talking about assault, which hopefully, will lead to more prevention,” the anonymous student said.
