Alejandra Cruz / Roundup
“My cousin molested me but I didn’t say anything.”
These are the real life stories of sexual abuse on shirts that were hanging near the Country Café that made Denim Day more significant.
These shirts showed how students that attend Pierce College had been affected by sexual assault and violence.
Holly Hagan, who forms part of the Campus Violence Response Team, said that mostly male students where asking themselves how this can be happening to people in our community.
“Some stories that are in these shirts are just so heart breaking, you would be amazed we are such a small community, this is only Pierce College that has written these stories, its really incredible that it is happening this often,” said Hagan.
Male students were approaching the section where the shirts were hanging, reading the shocking stories that maybe fellow students wrote to express what they lived.
Phrases like “I was abused when I was I child” or “My boyfriend hits me, stop him if you see it” were some of the things you could read on the shirts.
Pierce students like Marisela Escobar wrote on a shirt and felt good about it and thinks that people should do it.
“I think it is very positive for them to write about it because most people are afraid to talk about it or it’s harder for them to actually tell someone what happened, so if they write something on a shirt it gives them a chance to let it out of their system and feel better when they walk away,” said Escobar.
At least 87 out of 100 shirts were used during the day. They started this at 9 a.m. and planned to finish at 3:30.
The Campus Violence Response Team started to do this last year on Denim Day and they also do it on October for the Domestic Violence Month.
As part of the Sexual Assault Awareness Month students from Pierce will be participating in The Men’s March, “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,” that will take place tomorrow.
Registrations will begin at 10 a.m. at the Sherman Oaks Galleria on Ventura Blvd. and Sepulveda Blvd., which men will be, literally, walk a mile in women’s heels.
As a support of rape prevention, Pierce College students were allowed to create a T-shirt with a message and had them displayed in front of the Country Cafe on Wednesday April 22, 2009. (Homer Perez / Roundup)
