Last week’s observance of the 20th anniversary of the brutal rape and murder of Northwest College student Berry Bryant was no celebration.

Instead, the somber occasion featured a series of informative events aimed at increasing sexual assault awareness and prevention. One of those events was a panel discussion Wednesday at the Yellowstone Building Conference Center.

Sexual assaults can be prevented by avoiding intoxication, by intervening as bystanders, by changing mindsets, and by altering the social environment, panelists said.

Andrea Shipley, who served as moderator, said statistics show an average of one in four women, and one in six men, experience some form of sexual abuse in childhood.

Contrary to popular belief, most sexual assaults are not committed by strangers, Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt told the audience of about 30 people.

“TV and movies lead us to believe that the threat is not necessarily where it’s at,” said Chief Eckerdt. “Less than 5 percent (of perpetrators) are unknown to their victims. The vast majority — 95 percent — are acquaintances of the victim.” 

Eckerdt said he is aware of only two local cases of sexual assault in which the perpetrator was a stranger.

In 80 percent of sexual assault cases, the victim is a female who is intoxicated, said panelist Shaun Pohlman, NWC volleyball coach.

“The highest risk is for women after becoming voluntarily intoxicated,” Pohlman said. “The more often it happens, the more at risk they are.”

Pohlman said he sees the issue of sexual violence in a different light than he once did.

“This impacts me because I coach women. I get them for two years, and I get to hear about what they do as they move on in their lives,” he said. “The worst thing that you can ... hear about is a sexual assault that has occurred in their life, and now they’re trying to learn how to deal with it and how to manage life beyond that. It sucks, and it impacts me in a very big way.”

Candace Anderson, an advocate from Crisis Intervention Services, said that organization has dealt with eight cases of sexual assaults in Powell so far in 2016. Records since 2012 show the highest incidence of sexual assault in Powell occurred in 2014, with 25 reported cases. The lowest was in 2013, when seven sexual assaults were reported in Powell, Anderson said.

Eckerdt said he expects this year’s number of cases to grow, because more sexual assaults generally occur in the fall when students are experiencing independence, often for the first time.

Jeannie Hunt, assistant professor of speech communications and forensics coach, said the annual numbers likely are much higher, because rape is the most underreported crime.

While men also experience sexual assault, women 24 and younger suffer the highest rate of rapes; 29 percent of all rape victims were females between the ages of 11 and 17, said Jennifer Just, Title IX associate on the NWC campus.

Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in any education program receiving federal financial assistance.  

Hunt, who helped develop the college’s Title IX training, said people assume sexual violence doesn’t happen in rural areas. “But it happens a lot; it can be easier to brush under the rug, and harder to talk about, because it involves people you know,” she said.

After a sexual assault

When a sexual assault has occurred, the victim should go to the emergency room for an examination to preserve the evidence, Anderson said.

“Think of the yellow tape around a crime scene,” she said. “In a sexual assault, your body is the crime scene.”

Crisis Intervention strongly encourages victims to report sexual abuse, Anderson said.

Eckerdt said a victim can go to the emergency room for an exam even if she (or he) isn’t sure whether they want to press charges. The ER staff can collect the evidence and save it under a case number, so it will be available later if needed.

Just said she received training last fall to help with investigation of sexual assaults.

“If there is a report, we have to (investigate),” she said. “We can’t just cover it up.”

Helping victims of sexual assault is important, Just said.

That can happen in a number of ways, such as referring victims to Crisis Intervention and counseling, and perhaps later to a self-defense class.

Just said she also teaches self-defense classes. In the average class, one in four women has experienced rape, but she recalled an instance where one of every two women in the class was a rape victim.

“That was a really tough class, but we made it through,” Just said. “(Rape victims) have a general fear of men, and it’s difficult for them to function. After taking the class, some say they have nightmares. That’s a post-traumatic stress indicator.”

For several of them, the rapist was someone they had thought was a good friend.

Sometimes people who have been sexually assaulted are unaware that what happened to them would be considered an assault, said Danika Haynes, an NWC resident director.

Rape victims who choose to bring their cases forward in the legal system often are afraid they won’t get justice, Haynes said. “Putting the assailant behind bars is a really, really big part of the healing process,” she said.

Allowing a rape victim to tell their story without judging them also facilitates healing, Haynes said. “If you don’t believe somebody is telling the truth, that can hurt them even more than they’ve already been hurt.”

Hunt said the vast majority of people who report being sexually assaulted are telling the truth.

“Only about 6 percent of accusations are false, which means 94 percent of accusations are true,” she said. “That’s a lot of true accusations.”

Preventing sexual violence

Several strategies can help prevent sexual assaults, panelists said.

“One is looking at healthy sexuality, such as (being cautious about) alcohol consumption,” Just said.

“In the majority of cases we investigate, there is a high level of intoxication of both parties,” Eckerdt said. “Often they’re not sure what happened, and that can be hard to prosecute.

“Don’t get that intoxicated,” he advised. “Make sure you know what’s happening.”

Hunt said prevention can be more difficult when the perpetrator is a family member.

“It’s one thing to say you probably shouldn’t drink ... and another to say you probably shouldn’t hang out with your dad,” she said.

Education is a big component of prevention, panelists said. Anderson said Crisis Intervention gives educational presentations at high schools, but earlier intervention is needed at the middle school level, she said.

Just said the average age of a boy when he starts viewing pornography is 11 years old, adding, “If there’s no sex education in the home, it creates a real problem for young men when they’re so myth educated. If you ever watch any Lady Gaga music videos, women are so objectified with what they’re wearing — what they’re not wearing.”

Anderson said, “Sexual assault is all about power and control. It doesn’t have anything to do with what they’re wearing.”

“Another (prevention strategy) is looking at how we’re raised,” Just said. “A lot of times, when we raise young boys, we stick them in a little ‘man box’ with the phrase, ‘Man up.’”

If he goes outside of that box, he’s called a girl or a wuss, Just said. “Then they do something to ‘man up,’ and that leads to sexual violence.”

“A lot of people don’t know what consent is, or how to get it,” Haynes said. “Without being able to get that consent, it puts them more at risk (for sexual violence).”

Anderson said permission should be asked at each step. “Can I kiss you?” “Can I touch you?” She said people need to remember it’s OK to say no, “even in the middle of it.”

She said it’s important to pay attention to “red flags,” such as if someone keeps trying to push themselves at you, keeps trying to touch you, and generally invading your space and making you uncomfortable.

When that happens, “Say ‘Stop,’ and leave,” Anderson said.

Just said applying an unrealistic amount of pressure until a person gives in is not getting consent. “Like driving 5 miles out of town and saying they won’t take you home until you have sex. That’s manipulation,” she said.

‘A man’s issue’

Pohlman said it’s important for people to step in to prevent their friends from becoming perpetrators or victims.

“Not everyone is a perpetrator, not everyone is a victim, but everyone is a bystander,” he said. “If a bystander is present, sexual violence is less likely to occur.

“If you have a friend who says, ‘If I get a chance, I’m going to blah, blah, blah, blah,’ it’s up to you to say something. You are a bystander.”

Stepping in as a bystander is the easiest and best way to prevent sexual assaults, Haynes said.

“If you see someone who is too drunk to give consent, say something,” she said.

Too often, the victim is blamed, Pohlman said. “Well, she did this or that.” “She’s lying about it.”

“This is a man’s issue,” he said. “It’s absolutely ludicrous, the culture that exists. It needs to change. As a man, I’ve stepped up and I’ve come over to the other side to say we’ve got to do something about this.”