Wear jeans for a purpose

In a study on sexual assault conducted by the University of Texas System, 4 percent of all UTRGV male students and 6 percent of all female students reported they have experienced rape since their enrollment.

As previously reported by The Rider, more than 28,000 students in 13 of 14 UT System’s institutions participated in the study, including 3,821 UTRGV students.

The UTRGV Counseling Center and other university organizations will participate in Denim Day, an event in which people are encouraged to wear denim to raise awareness of sexual violence.

“So, the idea behind it is about looking at survivors, looking at people who have been harmed by sexual violence,” said Douglas Stoves, associate dean of Student Rights and Responsibilities. “So, the idea is to highlight that because April is the Sexual Violence Awareness Month.”

Among the organizations and departments that will take part in Denim Day are the Office for Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention (OVAVP), Student Rights and Responsibilities and Friendship of Women Inc.

Melissa Garcia, a primary prevention educator at Friendship of Women, said Denim Day originated in Italy.

“During those days, there was a victim of sexual assault,” Garcia said. “She was driving with her driver instructor and when they were driving, he committed sexual assault. Then, he left her down the road and she had to walk back home. She told her parents and her parents did everything they could. They went to the cops and reported the assault. [The case] went to court.  At the end, the judge ruled that because the girl was wearing tight jeans, she must have consented to have sex with the driver instructor. So then, most of the ladies of the parliament, they were really upset about the ruling. So, they protested by wearing denim jeans the next day.”

Garcia said after the incident in Italy, communities around the world wear denim to bring awareness of sexual misconduct.

“Since that happened, now it is like a worldwide thing where every last Wednesday of April, the communities around the world are encouraged to wear denim to make sure that there is justice for the victims of sexual assault and that the victims of sexual assault have all the resources that they can get,” Garcia said.

Sexual assault is defined by Texas Penal Code Section 22.011 as intentionally or knowingly causing the sexual organ of another person, without that person’s consent, to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus or sexual organ of another person, including the actor.

In April 1999, Peace Over Violence, a social service agency in Los Angeles, established the first Denim Day in the United States.

At UTRGV, Denim Day will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Student Union on the Edinburg campus and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 26 in the Main Courtyard on the Brownsville campus.

Garcia said she encourages community members to make a social statement by wearing jeans.

“We are going to have tables from different organizations and they are going to give out information on their specific services,” Garcia said. “We are also going to have raffles throughout the event and we are going to have poetry readings. Those poems will be coming from survivors of sexual assault.”

Priscilla Palacios, program coordinator for the Office for Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention, said her office is confidential and is open to the university community.

“We provide information about what the situation is about,” Palacios said. “Also, a lot of the times, we tell [the victims] that it doesn’t matter how others react, what happened to them is something that is believable.  We do believe them, we do believe that they went through something traumatic and that they shouldn’t have to go through it alone. We want them to know that there is someone here to help them.”

Stoves said raising awareness of sexual misconduct is important in order to eliminate it.

“I don’t like the fact that we have to have it for an issue such as this one, but as long as everyone in our community is subjected to sexual assault or rape, I think it’s important to raise more awareness. In that way, we can, hopefully, eliminate it at some point,” he said.  “I would love to see everybody in jeans that day.”

To report an incident, call University Police at 665-7151 in Edinburg or 882-8232 in Brownsville.