The public service announcements will be shown at a conference on April 5th at Hampshire College.
UMass sophomore Derek Luthi acts in a PSA aimed at preventing sexual assaults and increase reporting of incidences. Director Mary Patierno stands behind the camera.
While college campuses are the setting for learning, making friends, and memories, they’re also often a setting for sexual assaults.
And unfortunately, many students don’t know how to help or how to prevent these instances from occurring.
That’s why the Northwestern District Attorney’s office, along with help from police and local colleges, decided to launch a campaign to prevent further sexual assaults from happening, and to help those who have experienced sexual violence.
Twenty students from the five colleges and Greenfield Community College gathered Saturday in Northampton to film public service announcements aimed at preventing sexual assault.
“We’re trying to get the message across that the difference between sex and rape is consent, you always have to have consent before you have sexual contact with another person, so that’s what all these PSAs are about,” said Susan Loehn, former assistant to the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit.
The three PSAs show scenarios where sexual assault could occur, how to prevent them, and how to assert yourself.
Students from the five colleges and Greenfield Community College acted in the PSAs, aimed at preventing sexual assault and increase reporting of sexual assaults.
“We really wanted to build in the bystander point of view to teach students not only what is sexual assault and sexual harassment, but what do you do if you see it happening. In one of the scenarios there’s a party going on, and there’s a friend who helps take the focus off of what’s happening to her friend and says ‘Hey, you’ve got a call upstairs.’ It shows students what they can do if they see sexual harassment happening or a potentially dangerous situation about to occur,” said Mary Kociela, Director of Domestic Violence Projects at the DA’s office.
The students acting in the PSAs all auditioned for their roles and helped write the scripts. Many of the students are part of the ‘Not ready for bedtime players’ theatre troupe at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The troupe often puts on skits related to sexual assault, said UMass sophomore Derek Luthi.
“We deal with these issues in our skits, and we talk about how to prevent these situations, so it’s a topic I’m innately interested in,” said Luthi.
While sexual assaults can occur in many settings, anytime alcohol is involved is the likelihood increases, Loehn said.
Former assistant to the Northwestern District Attorney's Domestic Violence unit Susan Loehn, left, with DA's office Director of Domestic Violence Projects Mary Kociela, right. The two helped produce the PSAs.
“In the cases that we tend to get in our jurisdiction and I believe throughout college campuses, there’s alcohol involved. Either one person has been drinking or they both have been drinking. And we’re trying to tell them if someone is showing signs of intoxication, they can be a victim for someone who is a predator and tries to have sex with them when the person is too drunk to give consent. So that’s something we want to make sure gets out,” said Loehn.
The PSAs will be shown at a conference on April 5th at Hampshire College, where the DA’s campaign to raise awareness and reporting of sexual assaults on campus will officially launch. Student leaders from area colleges will be invited to attend, Kociela said.
“I think the biggest thing is raising awareness about the importance of consent and giving bystanders the tools to intervene if they see something happening that could lead to a sexual assault or sexual harassment. It’s a great diverse group of students, and they’re quite talented actors,” said PSA film director Mary Patierno.