ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601220067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
WHILE SOME SAY Brzonkala should bear some of the blame, educators agree that ``we're not talking about women's behavior.''
Why did Christy Brzonkala wait four months before alleging that she'd been raped?
Brzonkala said she knows she should have called police immediately, and shouldn't have changed her clothes or taken a shower; but at the time all she could think about was washing away the memory of what happened.
Teresa Berry, coordinator of Roanoke's Sexual Assault Response and Awareness Program, said such a reaction is understandable.
"There's no right or wrong way for someone to react after a sexual assault," Berry said.
Shayna Miller, a junior at Virginia Tech, in a commentary published in the campus newspaper Tuesday, faulted Brzonkala because she didn't scream for help. Other students have echoed those sentiments.
"We all know how thin the walls in residence halls are. The sounds of a woman in distress were not heard that night," she wrote in the Collegiate Times.
But Berry said some women disassociate themselves from what's happening until it's over.
"A person just shuts down," she said. Once it's over, some women try to put the incident out of their minds.
Rape victims often don't go to police because of a "fear of not being believed, or not wanting to believe that this has happened to them," she said. Berry said only one out of every 10 rapes is reported, and only one out of every 10 of those is prosecuted.
Some have said that, because Brzonkala went to the men's dorm room voluntarily, and because she had been drinking, she should shoulder some of the responsibility.
Betty Jones, a sexual assault educator at Radford University, disputed that.
"We're not talking about women's behavior," she said. "Whether a woman chooses to drink or not should in no way set her up to be raped."
Women can take steps to decrease their chances of being raped, but "there is nothing a woman can do to prevent a rape," Jones said. Men and women should avoid becoming intoxicated, because it's harder to communicate when they're in that condition, she said.
She advised women to "be aware that this happens."
Men need to respect a woman's right to say "no" and understand that "no" always means no, and that just because a woman doesn't physically resist a man does not mean the sex is consensual, Jones said.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB