Letter to the Editor: Red Zone awareness is more vital since the COVID-19 pandemic

It has been a brutal two and a half years, filled with unprecedented fear, loss, and unrest. For some, the start of the fall 2022 semester has been a welcome return to normalcy. As we return and reconnect in person, sexual assault awareness is more vital than ever.

The pandemic has by no means put a pause on interpersonal violence. In fact, research points to a shadow pandemic of domestic violence following lockdowns in 2020. The prevalence of sexual violence was alarming even before the pandemic, especially on college campuses. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), sexual violence is the most common of all college crimes. More than 50% of all college sexual assaults occur between August and November. This phenomenon is known nationwide as the “Red Zone.” Once again, we have entered the Red Zone — and we are bracing for its impacts.

It is too easy to look at statistics like these and depersonalize them. Whenever sexual violence happens, a person’s world turns upside down. A person’s life changes forever. A person grieves who they were before the traumatic event and learns to navigate who they are after. Multiple earth-shattering, heartbreaking individual journeys inevitably add up to impact our whole community. As an Aggie family, harm to one of us is harm to all of us.

The best thing we can do to prevent sexual violence in our community is to ensure we have consent for any and all sexual activity. Despite myths to the contrary, approximately 90% of survivors at USU know the person who assaulted them. It is rarely strangers that cause harm, but rather people we know who don’t understand how to practice consent. At its core, consent is an affirmative agreement to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way. Consent means talking openly about and respecting boundaries — physically, verbally, and digitally. For more information about consent, visit consent.usu.edu or contact the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information (SAAVI) office.

Even if you are fortunate not to be impacted by sexual violence, you most likely know or interact with someone who has. Be kind, considerate, and upstanding in your words and actions; you may never know the battle someone is facing. If a loved one trusts you enough to share their story with you, recognize the strength that takes. Avoid giving advice and victim blaming. Above all else, listen without judgment. Whether or not your loved one wants to report, the SAAVI office can support you in supporting them.

And if you identify as a victim or survivor, I see you. I believe you. You don’t deserve what happened to you, but you do deserve support. A trained SAAVI advocate can connect you with various resources and coping mechanisms. We can help facilitate your healing, however that looks for you.

To contact SAAVI, visit the Taggart Student Center 311, call 435-797-7273, email saavi@usu.edu, or go to saavi.usu.edu. You don’t have to navigate this alone.

Whitney Howard is an alumna from Utah State University and a former staff writer for The Utah Statesman. She is now a full-time victim advocate for the SAAVI office.

— whitney.howard@usu.edu