GMC to spotlight date rape
Toolbox
By Cristina Kumka STAFF WRITER - Published: February 10, 2010
A woman known as the subject of a nationally televised movie about being a surviving date-rape victim will speak about prevention at Green Mountain College in Poultney tonight.
Speaker Katie Koestner, a victim of rape in college who had a movie and numerous articles produced about her story, is aiming to educate female and male students at the college about healthy relationships and respect by telling her personal story of moving from victim to survivor.
The speech will be in the Gorge in Withey Hall at 7 p.m.
The school is hoping the talk will prompt proactive behavioral transformation among students who need it and others who need to be made aware of it.
The talk, co-sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the college athletic department among six other campus organizations, was not intended to be just another "athlete done good" story, according to organizer Marybeth Lennox, the college's athletic director.
"You can hear, 'I'm a great athlete and I beat the odds' so much," Lennox said Tuesday.
"On a small campus, everybody knows everybody … she (Koestner) hits on the idea that you may know your rapist."
Lennox said the topic and the speaker was chosen by the school as one that would relate to all 750 students, not just a specific segment or gender.
Rape on campus is a huge topic nationwide and for Green Mountain, it's important that "young women are being responsible and our young men are being respectful," Lennox said.
Koestner, who attended the College of William & Mary and became a national figure for date rape prevention, had her story featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1991 and, in 1993, was the subject of an HBO movie.
She's presented her "No-Yes Presentation" at about hundreds of schools and colleges across the country and was the only speaker to address cadets at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy in the same year, according to an e-mail from Lennox.
Koestner is now executive director of Campus Outreach Services, an organization that offers workshops, conferences and consulting services for schools on rape.
She's worked to develop an online rape education series and her appearance on Capitol Hill helped make the "Campus Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights" law in 1992, according to the e-mail.
For more information, call Lennox at Green Mountain at 287-8238.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
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