2 8 % O F C O L L E G E S T U D E N T S W I L L R E P O RT EXPERIENCING RAPE. (RAINN.ORG)
have sex on certain occasions. They told me that I should have called the police or gotten over it. They told me that I should try and forgive him. These invalidating sentiments made me feel as though I should minimize what I went through…that I should stop thinking about it and stop being upset and stop feeling completely disconnected from myself. After hearing so many invalidating statements, I feared opening up to people about being a rape survivor. It was not until I started speaking with other survivors that I felt truly comfortable in addressing my experience. In my third year at Cal Poly, I joined group therapy for survivors. This group helped me realize I was not alone in the trauma I was facing and still face today. They taught me that what I feel is valid, acceptable, and should never be minimized. Furthermore, their experiences drew my attention to the amount of injustice survivors face in coming forward about their incidents. I never reported mine because I did not have any evidence and it took me several months to label my experience as rape. However, when other survivors talked about having the courage to report their perpetrators to Title IX, I realized we have a major problem in our reporting system. Many survivors expressed that Title IX only worsened their trauma and provided them with absolutely zero justice. Hearing their stories about invalidation and injustice made me frustrated and angry so much so that I wanted everyone on this campus to hear about what we have gone through. That is why I started my project: The Clapback: An Investigation of the Sexual Assault and Rape Climate at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. When I started the project, I really wanted to focus on shedding light on survivors’ voices because we are so often silenced or brushed under the rug. In 1995, Cal Poly’s S.A.F.E.R. (Sexual Assault Free Environment Resource) started the Red Hands Project in which they painted red hands on areas of campus where assaults had taken place. Most red handprints were found outside of residence halls, causing parents to take notice and ask about the handprints while touring the campus with their children. Parents understandably started to voice their concerns about sending their children to a university with a sexual assault and rape problem. Rather than addressing the scrutiny and offering further solutions to the sexual violence