Valley College Increases Awareness on Sexual Assault

Speak Out & Stand Up (SOSU): Raising Awareness About Sexual Assault was a video presented by the SBCCD Police recently on the Valley College campus. It was shown as part of a series of events that the SBCCD used to highlight and create awareness about sexual assault in the community and to get people involved and create community dialogue about the topic of sexual assault. The events are held over the month of April on the Crafton Hills College campus in Yucaipa and Valley College in San Bernardino. More recently, the Board of Trustees for the San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD) adopted a resolution to recognize sexual assault and created Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This was created to draw attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and impacts every member of the district and Inland Empire communities. The statistics show that nearly one in five women will be a victim of sexual assault during college. In addition, rape and sexual assault are consistently underreported, and the physical and emotional trauma they leave behind can last for years. Educating the community about sexual violence prevention, supporting survivors, and speaking out against harmful attitudes and actions and that educational institutions has a primary responsibility to assist the community in doing so. Sergeant Chris Tamayo stated, “College aged women are more susceptible to be sexually assaulted and increasing awareness is something we take very seriously.” At the library viewing room at Valley, only one student came to see the video and to listen to Sergeant Chris Tamayo speak about the resources the campus and community provides to people who have been affected by sexual assault. Yolanda Alva is a student at Valley and came because, “I’ve been seeing girls talk about this stuff and I just wanted to come and show support.” She stated, “It’s important to get girls to talk to people about it and not keep it bottled up inside and I’m going to tell them to talk to anyone about it and not be scared about coming forward if something like that happens.”