A Place to Turn

Story County SART team provides local assistance to victims with law enforcement, medical care and counseling services.

By Stefanie Peterson

Iowa State Daily: Staff Writer

April 30, 2003

Forty-five of the 58 cases of sexual assault or violence reported in Story County in 2002 involved college-age individuals and 38 involved ISU students. Local officials say Story County citizens need to accept the reality of this situation and potential victims need to know where to go to receive help even before an incident occurs.

Misconceptions

The television flickers as a masked man crouches in the bushes, waiting.

The sound of heels on the sidewalk grows closer and closer as a beautiful young woman in a tight dress approaches. At the exact moment she passes, the man leaps from the bushes, grabs her from behind and pushes her into the back seat of his car. Half an hour later, the woman emerges crying, her dress torn. She runs for the nearest police station to seek help.

Although this scene is common in most media portrayals of sexual assault, Leigh Ebbesmeyer, director of training for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said only about 2 percent of sexual assaults involve an unknown attacker.

In reality, two-thirds of the 4,070 sexual assault cases seen by Iowa Sexual Assault Crisis Centers from 2001 to 2002 took place between victims who knew their attackers.

"Sixty-five percent of sexual assaults happen in the home of the offender or the victim because they're in a place where they think they can trust the person," Ebbesmeyer said. Eighty-five percent to 90 percent of rapes occur between acquaintances, not strangers, she said.

Unlike media portrayals, Ebbesmeyer said most incidents of sexual assault go unreported. Only 2,112 of the 4,070 cases previously mentioned were reported to law enforcement.

Julie Wooden, sexual assault services coordinator for the ACCESS Assault Care Center, estimates that only one out of every 10 sexual assaults is reported.

During a Take Back the Night speech on April 17, Ebbesmeyer said society often blames the survivor but needs to place the blame where it belongs -- on the perpetrator.

"How many times have we or someone we know said, 'She shouldn't have been drinking,' or, 'She shouldn't have gotten into the car?'

"It's a rare occurrence to hear someone say, 'He shouldn't have raped her,' " she said.

Another common misconception about rape is that it is solely about sex.

Rather, attackers use rape as a method to assert power over, control, express anger or show a sense of entitlement to women's bodies, Ebbesmeyer said. Fifty percent of attackers also have abuse in their own background, she said.

Penny Rice, coordinator for the Sloss Women's Center, said seeking help is often seen as admitting weakness.

"We live in the middle of the heartland and that work ethic is that you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you go on when something happens," she said.

"Many of our students are coming from communities that wouldn't say, 'Maybe you should see a counselor,' or 'Maybe you should get help.' "

'It can't happen to me': Where to turn when it does

Story County is home to the Sexual Assault Response Team, or SART, a union of nine law enforcement, medical and counseling agencies designed to respond to sexual assault cases. The team responds to about one report each week, said Heather Priess, SART team coordinator.

SART formed in 1997 to coordinate the efforts of the groups involved: the ISU Department of Public Safety, Ames Police, Story County Sheriff's Office, Thielen Student Health Center, Planned Parenthood, Mary Greeley Medical Center, ACCESS Assault Care Center, Student Counseling Services and the Story County Attorney's Office. Priess said cooperation between the agencies that make up the SART team makes it unique from any other system in the United States.

"People are really struggling to get anything like this started in a lot of communities because they're having big battles between how agencies respond and there are turf issues," she said.

"What we've done is put down our past differences to recognize that sexual assault and violence is a serious problem that we all need to help deal with," Priess said.

Sexual assault survivors can connect with the SART team regardless of which agency they turn to first.

"The way the team works is when an individual calls, a three-person team of a sexual assault nurse examiner, an advocate and an officer, is dispatched to the victim," she said.

"The officers are ones who have gone through extra training to be more sensitive to the needs of victims and survivors," Priess said.

The survivor and the SART team meet at the survivor's desired location, usually a medical facility, Priess said. The survivor is then presented options for how they want to proceed.

"They can do whatever they want to do," she said. "For instance, they can choose to have a medical exam done but not file a police report or choose to get counseling but not have an exam," Priess said.

Law enforcement

ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said law enforcement is often the first responder to survivors' calls because the SART line rings directly into the police department.

"We felt it was important to have that number ring into a place that is staffed around the clock," he said. "When we started looking at the agencies that can provide that staffing, it gets narrowed down pretty quickly."

To provide greater anonymity, Deisinger said the SART line is separate from the other DPS phone lines.

"Some victims might be concerned if they felt the line might be recorded or someone else had access to that line," he said.

Medical care

Sue Dekkers, sexual assault nurse examiner at the Thielen Student Health Center, said she is responsible for conducting sexual assault examinations on a survivor who comes into the emergency room.

Attention to immediate medical needs is the first service survivors receive in the emergency room, Dekkers said.

"Fortunately, the number of injuries that require medical treatment are very minimal," she said.

Dekkers said the most common injury she sees is a laceration on the vagina from "blunt penetrating trauma." This injury results from the forceful entry into the vagina because the female is not a willing participant, she said.

Evidence collection is the next step in an examination. Evidence can be gathered only if the survivor seeks medical help within 72 hours of the incident, when bodily fluids and injuries are still present, Dekkers said. Victims should allow evidence to be collected even if they are unsure about whether they will pursue legal action.

"If we don't get the evidence, then it's gone," she said. "We also know survivors are not in a position to decide what they want to do at that moment and I don't think it's appropriate for us to expect them to make that decision immediately. Even if the survivor chooses not to pursue legislation right away, we keep the evidence for 10 years."

Evidence collection involves conducting a vaginal exam using a colposcope, an instrument that takes pictures of tears in the vagina. Hair and pubic hair is combed for foreign matter and a blood sample is drawn. A boucle swab on the inside of the cheek is conducted to check for semen in the lining of the gums, Dekkers said.

Finally, the nurse looks for bruises and mud or grass stains on the clothing, depending on the account of the incident given by the survivor. After all evidence is collected from the survivor's body, an informational session is given. Dekkers said she offers survivors emergency contraception, or "the morning after pill." The survivor then receives treatment for gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, sterility and a base line HIV test. Another HIV test must be done after three months to capture any actual results from the assault.

"We do a fair bit of education to encourage victims to get an annual exam and pap smear to track [possible problems]," she said.

Dekkers said local resources are "very survivor-focused."

"I'm on call and if someone needs to be seen I'll come in any time, day or night," she said.

Todd Buchacker, center manager at Planned Parenthood in Ames, said survivors can also receive sexual assault examinations there. The center offers more resources for outlining pregnancy options than the other members of the SART team do, he said.

If a sexual assault results in an unplanned pregnancy, Planned Parenthood outlines the survivor's birth, adoption or abortion options.

"I can say we do that well," he said. "We're really part of the medical part of [the SART team]."

Counseling

Gena Staggs, counselor at the ISU Student Counseling Center and graduate student in psychology, said on-campus counseling provides a closer location for students seeking help with a sexual assault incident.

"I think a lot of times students are more aware of us so they might come here first," she said.

Penny Rice, coordinator for the Sloss Women's Center, said she provides survivors and friends of survivors an opportunity to share their emotions through the counseling she offers.

"Victims and their friends may not identify [the incident] immediately as a sexual assault," she said. "They can't explain some emotions that make them uncomfortable or why they can't sleep at night. Once they're able to name the experience, then I can refer them and I can encourage them to do the thing that's going to be best for them in the situation they're in."

Rice said she escorts students to counseling services to help them make that transition.

Staggs said the counseling center is then able to connect sexual assault survivors with the local, more specialized resources they may not yet know about.

"The great thing about it is that once a student comes in here, we act on their behalf to connect them with everything they need, from legal guidance to medical exams and support groups," she said. "They can also have ongoing counseling here, but we give them all their options."

Rice said the majority of survivors she helps don't follow up with her after she leads them to the SART team.

"I do believe once they're in the hands of the SART team, their needs are being taken care of and respected," she said.

SART's contribution

Members of the SART team say increased legal action against perpetrators and increased visibility for how to find resources have resulted from the team's five years of work in Story County.

Deisinger said more survivors have pursued legal action against perpetrators since SART's formation.

"I've seen more victims being willing to take the case forward criminally, I believe in part because of advocacy and support from law enforcement," he said.

Rice said contact information for sexual assault services has also increased since the SART team was formed, including the distribution of magnets.

Rice said continuing the quality of sexual assault services in the future will require cooperation from many departments and organizations in Ames and Story County, including Iowa State.

Dealing with sexual assault is a challenge to university admissions because they don't want parents to worry about their students, Rice said. Funding for sexual assault services is also difficult to maintain through budget cuts.

Rice said failure to accept the reality of sexual assault can also delay offering help to survivors.

"We're a very educated community," she said. "Sometimes that's helpful and sometimes it's not."

Moving on

Multiple events held in Story County each year provide sexual assault survivors with an outlet to communicate their experiences and find support from others.

Take Back the Night, held on the ISU campus for the 11th time on April 9, is one such event.

Shea Rentschler, president of the ISU Committee Against Violence, said it has grown into a locally organized event to unify community members in an awareness of violence against women, children and families.

"The purpose of Take Back the Night is to make people aware that this is everybody's issue," said Rentschler, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies. "We can't fight violence against women, children and families without the participation of men in that."

Each year, Iowa State's observance of Take Back the Night includes a rally, march through Campustown and the greek community and a candlelight vigil on the shores of Lake LaVerne.

Rentschler said the event united survivors of sexual assault and violence with advocates who want to improve local conditions.

"Just being in an atmosphere that's supportive gives everybody a sense of solidarity," Rentschler said. "[Take Back the Night] provides a safe place where sexual assault and domestic violence survivors can come and share their experiences," she said.

Haley Kauffman, sexual assault survivor and Ames resident, found the support she needed when she spoke at Take Back the Night. Kauffman said she has been raped three times: once by an acquaintance, once by an ex-boyfriend and once by a masked intruder in her apartment. She went to the police only after her third rape.

Kauffman said the incidents left her frightened, confused and ashamed. "It made me angry that being a woman meant I have to be afraid," she said.

Ebbesmeyer said Take Back the Night provides participants like Kauffman with education and power.

"I think it shows victims that they are not the only one that this has happened to," she said. "It's something they're never going to forget and I don't think they should. When they can see that it's not their fault, it's very healing."

Teresa Branch, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, said improvement of services for survivors and education efforts must continue at Iowa State.

"The most important message an institution of higher education can communicate is that violence against women will not be tolerated," she said.

Iowa State Daily 4-30-2003