Pierce’s Denim Day ended with an event called Take Back the Night Wednesday, April 24.
Denim Day is a day devoted to raising awareness on sexual abuse and supporting survivors of sexual abuse.
The march for Take Back the Night began at the center of the Pierce College mall, where about 50 people, most wearing denim, congregated in support of the event.
One of those students was Michelle Borsco, president of the Feminist Club at Pierce College, who helped coordinate the event.
“Take Back the Night is a walk we do every year and it goes with the idea that we should be able to walk wherever we’d like at night,” said Borsco. “There’s a girl I know, she didn’t come because she was afraid to walk at home at night after this. It’s ironic in a really sad way.”
The walk started through Pierce College and took to the streets where students shouted and repeated chants in protest of sexual abuse, one of the chants being “Yes means yes, no means no, however we dress, wherever we go.”
One of the main leaders of the chants during the walk was Bernard Hanamichi, who has been participating in the event for four years and is also the secretary of the Feminist Club.
“We tell women to watch out for rape, but we don’t tell the people who are doing it, mostly guys, not to rape,” said Hanamichi about the awareness Take Back the Night strives for.
As the walk continued students flashed their signs crafted for the event and cheered after each approving honk from cars passing by.
Holly Hagan, a textbook buyer at Pierce College, marched along three other generations of women in her family; her mother, daughters, and granddaughters in addition to her grandson and nieces.
Hagan is also a survivor of abuse herself who frequently shares her experience with students on campus and was pleased to share the important experience with the women and other member of her family.
“It’s for awareness, and as long as I have them be a part of this they’re not only aware of what I do, they’re also aware of what happens outside in our world,” said Hagan.
Students becoming conscious of what Denim Day represents and survivors of abuse on campus is a goal Hagan feels satisfied about achieving.
“It goes back to you’re making someone aware of what’s going on in this campus. I love to see when men are reading these shirts and they’re taking it in, they’re thinking and that thought may change how they have been thinking in the past,” said Hagan.
For more information of Denim Day please visit www.denimday.com and denimdayusa.org
