To the Editor,
Over winter break, the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program replaced the outdated emergency phone number stickers which were in bathrooms throughout campus. This sticker replacement project was undertaken at students' suggestions (including recommendations made last spring and summer) and under assignment from the Dean of the College office. The new sticker is neon green and gives information about where to seek help if you have been "forced or coerced into sexual activity against your will." It simply tells survivors that they are not alone and that there are people who can help. The sticker makes important information accessible to people who often feel isolated and don't know where to turn.
Since these stickers were posted at the beginning of the term through cooperation with ORL and FO&M, many of them have been peeled off or written on. This is truly outrageous.
There is nothing offensive about these stickers -- they simply provide important information. The defacing of these crisis information stickers should be understood as located on the continuum of hate-speech crimes which seem to be all too common on our campus. The people defacing these stickers are sending a very specific message to the members of our community who have survived sexual abuse. In taking away that crucial information, they are saying, "you will be alone in your pain, I will isolate you further." The people removing the stickers are saying that the campus does not support survivors of sexual abuse.
Our community must not tolerate this. I urge each of us to protect and support the placement of these stickers and to understand their necessity to our friends, our classmates, and ourselves. If you notice a sticker which has been defaced or removed, please blitz the "SAPA" account for a replacement.
