Take Back the Night 2015 lets sexual assault survivors know they're not alone
As she stood on the stage, Roxann Pacholka wanted the audience to know one thing: they are not alone.
Pacholka is an advocate for victims and survivors of sexual assault and a survivor of over a decade of childhood sexual abuse. She was the guest speaker for Take Back the Night 2015, an event hosted by Students Advocating Gender Equality to speak out about sexual violence.
About 40 people attended the speech, which was held at 6:30 in the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium. Pacholka began her speech by by telling her own story of her childhood sexual assault experience and later provided resources for any survivors in the audience.
"Take Back the Night is a perfect place for us to come together to educate, advocate and share," Pacholka said. "Each sexual assault is different and each case is based on a variety of scenarios, but that doesn't make it any less important."
A PowerPoint set up next to her told the audience statistics about sexual assault including: a sexual assault takes place every 107 seconds; 44 percent of survivors are under 18; 80 percent are under 30; and 98 percent of rapists never spend a day in jail.
It also listed her personal, and common side effects of being sexually assaulted, including: severe depression and anxiety; flashbacks; nightmares; PTSD; body image issues; and possible attempted suicides.
"You should never be ashamed or embarrassed to seek out help in begin the process to heal,” Pacholka said.
She told the story of how the man who sexually assaulted her was never persecuted despite a written confession due to Michigan’s No Statute of Limitation law,which makes anyone who committed sexual assault before 2001 unable to be persecuted .
The Take the Night 2015 march was cancelled due to rain. Instead, almost 20 students traveled to the Veteran's Memorial Library and sat in a classroom to share their own survivor stories in a safe place.
“I think having events like take back the night are important because they give a safe place for survivors to have a voice to share their story,” Holland senior Samm Grubbs said.
While Saginaw senior and one of the leaders of Take Back the Night, Marie Reimers, is upset that the march couldn’t be held, she still believes that they captured the essence of Take Back the Night.
"I think it went well. I'm incredibly proud of the people who shared their stories,” Reimers said. “Tonight was very powerful."
