Under the shadow of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October is also Domestic Violence Awareness month, despite the lack of events Paint the Night Purple still came through to teach students about the issue of domestic violence that affects the community.
On Thursday, Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority hosted Paint the Night Purple, an event dedicated to teach UCF students what domestic violence is, along with the signs of domestic violence and what to do if we see a domestic violence situation and how to react.
“We wanted to focus on something that really isn’t prominent on this campus, which is domestic violence awareness,” said Valerie Perez, president of eta theta chapter at UCF of Gamma Sigma Sigma, and representative of Harbor House.
Harbor House of Central Florida and Victim services delivered a presentation to 10 students in the Harris Engineering Center.
“Domestic violence is something that’s growing, and its becoming worse, and it affects every person here,” Perez said.
Last year, Perez says, 5,300 people called the Orange County Sheriffs office requesting assistance; only 24 of the accused were prosecuted toward domestic violence charges.
Victim Services provides direct services to the UCF community, but is not only subject to areas of domestic violence.
“We worked with about 800 students last year, a predominant amount of those students are working with us because of intimate partner violence,” said Christine Mouton, director of Victim Services.
Intimate partner violence can include emotional such as verbal abuse and physical violence.
“Here at UCF we are starting to look at the principles of bystander intervention and how people can pull through or help a friend out,” Mouton said.
Domestic violence is escalating at UCF with the help of technology because it is a tool for stalking. Students are seeking help as a result of being stalked after ending relationships.
As of October 1, Florida now has an injunction for stalking, it also makes anyone legally responsible to call and report witnessed accounts of domestic violence making it a community issue.
In just one month, 11 lives have been lost to domestic violence in Central Florida, four of which were just bystanders.
“It affects everybody, because next thing you know, like the co-worker situation, homeboy is walking up shooting you and everybody else just because of one little thing,” said Rosa James, Domestic Violence Prevention Coordinator for Harbor House, regarding the recent tragedy when Bradford Baumet stormed into a Casselberry salon, shooting his girlfriend and three other women.
“That’s the purpose of my department, is to make the community aware that it is not a private issue, it is a community issue, and it affects everyone,” James said.
Mouton recounts the story of UCF student Andrew Allred who killed his girlfriend Tiffany Barwick and her friend Michael Ruschak. While Barwick was receiving threats from Allred, she reported it to the police, but was told there was little he could do. The law in Florida was then changed so that dating violence was seen the same as domestic violence.
“It starts from the beginning, in small details, such as bullying,” said Lorena Tavor, representative for Harbor House of Central Florida.
