Students design t-shirts at a sexual assault awareness event

This story mentions sexual assault

The Health and Wellness Center hosted an event Wednesday for students to design T-shirts to show support for sexual assault survivors.

Students will hang the T-shirts on a clothesline on the patio of the Health and Life Sciences Building at a follow-up event on Oct. 31.

“Love is not supposed to hurt,” said Katie Keys, sexual violence prevention project manager. “It’s supposed to be caring and supportive.”

The Clothesline Project is a nationwide event that began in 1990. Rachel Carey-Happer, sexual assault survivor and founder, was inspired by the NAMES Project’s AIDS Memorial Quilt, created in 1985.

Keys said the AACC Clothesline Project is back for the first time since 2019.

“It’s really nice to see so many people coming together,” Keys said. “It’s really special.”

Keys said incidents of sexual violence sometimes occur at community colleges.

“These are experiences that our students are having, and I want to shed light on them,” Keys said. “I especially want to be able to connect everyone to the resources that we have on campus because so many times almost every day I hear, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know we had that.'”

Keys added: “I just want to make it as easy as possible [to seek help].”

The students said they found the event effective.

“I’m a survivor of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, so I thought, ‘This is great,’ I’m so glad the school is doing this,” said Lili Pastor, third-year nursing student.

“And I’m especially glad that this is something from the Health and Wellness Center because, you know, someone had to do all the work for us and I really appreciate them taking that step. ”

Kai Johnson, a first-year transfer student, agreed.

“I grew up around people who were involved in domestic violence relationships and sexual abuse and things like that,” Johnson said. “And honestly, I haven’t thought about it or even expressed it in my own way in a while. And so that event kind of forced me to stop and take a minute to really make something like the t-shirt that kind of shows how I’ve grown and what I’ve learned coming out of those situations am.”

Victims of sexual assault can get help by calling the 24-hour statewide hotline at 410-222-6800.