Youth Radio program in Mendocino County, CA. Produced by Dan Roberts, 59 minutes, call-in portion. Stimulated by recent rape/murder of 25 year old in the community.
Our topic for today is Sexual Assault and Substance Abuse. Sexual assault is perpetrated on a daily basis in every community. It can happen in a home by someone known, on a date, or in an isolated place by a stranger. Sexual assault can be verbal, visual, or physical- anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. It can involve activity that one party does not agree to, and can include inappropriate touching, penetration, intercourse, rape, or molestation. Two-thirds of all sexual assaults are committed by an acquaintance of the victim and two-thirds are never reported to the police. Almost half of the assaults are to people under 18 years old, and 80% are under 30. Among college students, three-quarters of the perpetrators have been drinking prior to the assault, over half of the victims have as well. Tragic events in Willits in November have stimulated today s topic. A very talented and popular 25 year old woman was discovered dead by friends, the apparent victim of rape and murder. For legal reasons pending an upcoming murder trial, we will not go into the details of the recent horrible event. But we will discuss the problem of sexual assault and what local communities and organizations are doing to reduce the number of incidents. Project Sanctuary has been serving Mendocino County for decades, offering counseling, shelter, and educational services out of Ukiah and Fort Bragg. They are a rape crisis center and provide protection for victims of domestic violence. They may be reached in Ukiah at 462-9196 and on the coast at 961-1507. Laytonville Healthy Start Resource Center works with the community and schools on alcohol and drug prevention and serve as a resource for parents and youth. They provide education at the schools through Health Fairs where they invite Project Sanctuary and other organizations to deliver information to our youth. They also support YouthSpeaksOut! Their phone number is 984-8089 Mendocino County Youth Project offers social services, counseling, education and crisis prevention services county wide. They may be reached at 463-4915 Dragonfly Foundation is new and was created last month in Willits. It is dedicated to ending sexual assault and substance abuse in the community. They held their first event last week in Willits to raise funds for outreach and education. More events are in the works. We know that there are other resources in our county and hope that representatives will join the discussion in the later part of the show, when we have call-ins. Sexual assault on college campuses has been in the news a lot recently. Many statistics have been given press, including that 1 in 5 college women will experience sexual violence. Many colleges and universities have instituted studies and are creating educational and outreach programs to reduce the frequency of these attacks. But a large number of educational institutions are being investigated by the federal government for mishandling assault and harassment charges. There is a disputed statistic saying that a higher percentage of college women are sexually assaulted than non-college women of the same age. Regardless, both sides of the argument agree that around 20% of women 18-24 will be assaulted, a terribly large number. Earlier we mentioned that three-quarters of the perpetrators have been drinking alcohol, as have more than half of the victims. Add to that the other substances used and abused in our community (such as ecstasy, cocaine, oxycodine, meth, and marijuana) and there is probably a significant correlation between substances and sexual assault. Clearly not everyone using substances commits assault- but victims are more vulnerable when high, and assailants are more likely to lose control when under the influence. Helping people avoid or limit their consumption of alcohol and other drugs could seriously reduce the rate of sex crimes. Our goal in producing this show is to seriously reduce the number of sex crimes in our community. Part of the problem is that so many things are hushed up in a small community. It has been pointed out that we live in a culture of secrecy, stimulated locally by the need to maintain confidentiality around marijuana production, which is currently illegal. We hope that you are interested in hearing about sexual assault and substance use and will want to participate. We re at the Willits Studio and our phone number will be 456-9991. We will encourage everyone to join in the discussion in about 20 minutes. Let s begin by talking about what sexual assault is, and how prevalent we think it is in our community. ************************************ We re going to open the phone lines now. The phone number is 707 456-9991. Everyone is welcome to call, and we d especially like to encourage the youth, their parents, teachers, and concerned friends in the listening audience. Please call in if you have questions or insights on sexual assault and substance abuse. Do you think that sexual assault is under reported in our community? In our country? Why is it under reported? Do you believe that substance abuse contributes to sexual crimes? What would you propose to reduce the incidence of sexual assault in our community? At what age should preventative education begin? If Kayla s murder is a wake-up call? what is the message? How has Kayla s murder affected your life? If someone is a victim of sexual assault, where can they go to receive help in our community? Please call in and be part of this conversation.