Red Flag Campaign to raise awareness of dating violence during month of October

The Fort Hays State University’s Women’s Leadership Project is holding their annual Red Flag Campaign during the month of October at FHSU in order to raise awareness and address dating violence on college campuses.

The Red Flag Campaign has been held annually in October for the past five years by the Women’s Leadership Project and now has Defenders of the Broken, a Leadership 310 team from the department of Leadership, helping raise awareness for the event. Other volunteers on campus include the Defensive Tactics Club, FHSU Panhellenic Council, the department of Health and Human Performance, and Options.

The Red Flag Campaign is prevalent at FHSU and many other college campuses because many people are not aware that dating violence happens often, according to Sadie Lungren, Women’s Leadership Project Coordinator. In one of five college dating relationships, one of the partners is being abused.

INFORMATION ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE


Someone in America is sexually assaulted every two minutes.


80 percent of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30 and 44 percent of victims are under the age of 18.


There are 237,550 sexual assaults per year on average.


42 percent of sexual assault cases are reported while 58 percent of cases are not.


23 percent of people are intimate with their attacker.


In one of five college dating relationships, one of the partners is being abused.


Two in three sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows, such as dating or intimate relationships.


“A lot of people also think that dating violence is just physical,” Lungren said. “It has so much more to do with emotional abuse, stalking, victim blaming, jealousy, and coercion.”

The Red Flag Campaign will host events throughout October including the self-defense workshop held last Saturday, tables in the Memorial Union to hand out information and sell t-shirts throughout the month, a Times Talk, Red Day, women’s and men’s soccer games and volleyball games.

The Times Talk about the Red Flag Campaign and Bystander Intervention is scheduled for October 8 at Forsyth Library from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The first 20 attendees will receive a free lunch.

Red Day is on October 24, 2014 and the Women’s Leadership Project will be encouraging students and faculty to wear red on that day to show support in combating dating violence, according to Lungren.

Women’s Leadership Project will also be meeting with athletic teams and student organizations throughout October to talk about dating violence and bystander intervention.

“If students are more aware that it is an issue, we will be able to combat dating violence with bystander intervention, speaking out when you see it happen,” Lungren said.

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