Cards provide numbers to assist victims
by Brian Wainstein, Editor-In-Chief

   Getting carded next week may well save someone from becoming a victim of sexual assault.
   The TCC police department, together with the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, will hand out cards to students on each TCC campus with information to reduce the likelihood of sexual assault.
   The cards provide several toll-free numbers students can call for help, counseling and guidance.
   More than 1,000 volunteers at more than 600 colleges across the country have joined with RAINN to get the cards and message out to students.
   "RAINN is fantastic. I called their hotline to test it once, and they had me on the phone with the police department in my area within two minutes," Lt Grady Patterson of SE Campus said.
   Patterson will hold sexual assault and rape awareness seminars on each campus during the week of Get Carded Day.
   "Students need to know how to protect themselves and where to get help," he said.
   The seminars will cover the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, statistical reports, information about how to stay safe on campus and a short video.
   The Jeanne Clery Act of 1965 was passed in response to the murder of Jeanne Clery on a college campus.
   The act requires campus police departments to publish crime statistics on their colleges as well as their policies concerning campus security.
   "The purpose of this crime act is to educate parents, students and faculty about the prevalence of crime at college," Patterson said.
   According to RAINN, the number of rape and sexual assault victims who reported attacks increased last year, coupled with a decline in the amount of total assaults in the United States.
   RAINN says that the decline is due in part to the increase in reported crime, but the generation change is also a factor.
   "This generation has grown up knowing that 'No Means No,' and young women of today are both more careful about entering into potentially dangerous situations and more willing to forcefully express their own desires," Scott Berkowitz, president of RAINN, said.