Bowling Green, KY March 27, 2014

TakEBack

TheNight

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On March 27th, Hundreds gathered in downtown Bowling Green, Kentucky to participate in Take Back the Night. Men, women, college students and groups met at the Bowling Green Justice Center which is located on 1001 Center St. Take Back the Night that promotes

awareness for sexual assault. The march takes place in March which is Sexual As-sault Awareness Month. There are several ways a TBTN event can occur. There can be a candlelight vigil, a march, or chances for people to speak out. At this particu-lar event on March 27th, there was sup-posed to be a candlelight vigil but due to rain this was unable to happen. While at the event, Melissa Whitley encouraged us to keep walking whether rain or shine because abuse happens all the time.

Assailants do not put their abuse on hold during a storm so we will not stop protesting, stated one of the speakers at this rally. The group pic-tured below is a group of employees and residents from Gilbert Hall. WKU students are always trying to find way to get in-

volved and there is no better way than to serve your community. There were several speakers who shared their stories about being sexually assaulted. Shortly after, the march start-ed. Police were lining the streets ready to leader the hundreds of walkers. The walk is about a mile or so long. The event ran right through the square, past the pub-lic library and back to the Justice Center. There was a great turn out this year and Bowling Green hopes to see this move-ment continue to grow. 2

All About Take Back the Night

Nathan Wilson (center) stands with a few of his fraternity brothers before they start their march downtown.

RA Rebekah Pate (right) with resident Sara Beth Kizer.

Sophomore Rebekah Pate is a Resident Assistant on the 3rd floor of Gilbert Hall. Pate is heading up the Hall Council in Gilbert this semester. She saw Take Back the Night as an oppor-tunity to bond with the girls as well as show support for an organization. This was her first time participating in TBTN and she marks it up to be a memo-rable experience. Rebekah and about 10 Gilbert residents attended Take Back the Night on March 27th. Bekah is a strong believer that as a woman who has not been sexually assaulted, she still must stand her ground and show our sup-port. Living in an all girls residance hall, sexual assault is something that a few of her peers have faced and feared. Pate states,Take Back the Night was a great way to give back to the commu-nity and also for us women to raise our voices about sexual assault.

I think it is a great cause and one that more light needs to be shed on.

Nathan Wilson was born and raised in the south. He was brought up to treat others with respect. Wilson states,I have had fam-ily and friends whom have faced the terror of sexual assault.The moment he heard that a Take Back the Night rally would be hap-pening in Bowling Green, he invited a few of his fraternity brothers to go along with him. This was his first year attending and he looks forward to con-tinuing this tradition. Victims should have a voice and be able to speak without guilt or remorse because they did noth-ing wrong.states fresh-man Nathan Wilson. He is a strong supporter of other organizations that rally against sexual as-sault. Nathan and his Phi Delt brothers, all enjoyed marching around Down-town Bowling Green a few weeks ago. I think it is a great cause and one that more light needs to be shed on.states Nathan.

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Raising their voices

(From left to right) Freshman Stacee Pope, Kaitlyn Snel-ling and Robin Lester proudly pose with their sign for Take Back the Night.

AT LEAST ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE WOMEN WORLD-WIDE HAS BEEN BEATEN, FORCED INTO SEX OR OTHER-WISEABUSED IN HER LIFETIME BY A PARTNER, RELATIVE, FRIEND, STRANGER, EMPLOY-ER, AND/OR COLLEAGUE.OF THESE CRIMES, LESS THAN 50% ARE REPORTED TO THE POLICE.ITS TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE. Photos belong to Sara Beth Kizer

Video belongs to WBKO 4

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