Dialogue for change: University of North Texas students create petition to start discussion about rape kits
Andy Casadonte | Art Director
With almost 700 signatures, four students at the University of North Texas have gone from forming a project for a class to starting a dialogue about having rape kits on campus.
When asked to choose a feminist issue on campus in their Introduction to Women’s Studies course, Tiffany Contessa, Sabrina Ortiz, Melina Padron and Dexia Smith agreed that sexual assault victims should be able to access sexual evidence collection kits — also known as rape kits — on campus, Ortiz explained in an email.This led them to create a petition on Change.org, calling for the availability of rape kits for students.
“Treatment should be administered immediately to ensure that the victim has to go through the least hassle possible, and the earlier an exam is performed, the greater the likelihood that substantial evidence can be collected,” said Ortiz, a freshman international studies major at UNT.
The main goal for Smith is to raise awareness and support, she said in an email.
This petition is “close to home” for Smith because she has friends who were victims of sexual assault, she added.
“They experienced this trauma alone,” Smith said. “So I vowed to take that step to help provide genuine support to those victims who feel alone after going through something so traumatic.
Buddy Price, news promotion manager at UNT, stated that the petition has raised “a level of conversation on campus.”
“It’s essential to listen to our students and take safety as a major effort on our campus, which we do,” Price said. “We are very open to listening to the students and working with them and seeing if we can work something out.”
But Price expressed that it is not common for universities to have rape kits on campus. He also added that there was a hospital relatively close to the university.
Padron, a freshman psychology major, also said in an email that it is not standard to offer rape kits on campus. But she added that it is still an important issue that would save victims from going through the extensive process of reporting the crime to the police department, hospital and counseling center at the university.
The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network states on its website that only 40 out of 100 rapes get reported to the police.
“If the university were to offer these services through rape kits or even a rape crisis center, (students) would feel more compelled to seek help because it is an environment that they already recognize and feel safe in,” Padron said.
The problem is that providing rape kits on a university campus requires expensive equipment and a specialized sexual assault nurse examiner, USA Today reported on Nov. 2.
But the petition has been gaining signatures, jumping from more than 500 signatures to more than 600 this week.
“After all the attention that our activism has caused, it has to mean that people agree with us and want to help,” said Smith, one of the students behind the petition. “Even if the campus doesn’t want to provide the rape kits through the Health and Wellness Center, we hope to establish a support group or center on campus with credible counselors and accessible hours.”
