TIGER TV ONLINE REPORTER

Chants of “Take back the night!” echoed through campus Sunday night as Kathryn Saichuk, Wellness Education Coordinator, led a march promoting the fight against domestic violence.

Sunday night was the 23rd annual Take Back the Night event and the second year the University was host, Saichuk said.

“Girls between the ages of 16-24 are at the highest risk for domestic violence so it’s important to get the message out to younger women and engage the new generation,” said Summer Steib, the director of education and training for the Battered Women’s Program.

Also, Saichuk said several younger victims do not realize domestic violence is wrong.

“So many people growing up in a violent household think it’s normal to grow up with violence,” she said.

Martha Forbes, the executive director of the Battered Women’s Program, said 23,000 women were physically or sexually assaulted just in Louisiana based on a 2002 study done by the Department of Justice.

Also, Louisiana is top in the nation for the number of men who kill women based on the FBI’s 2007 Expanded Homicide Data, Forbes said.

“Sixty-seven percent of all women who are killed by men are in intimate relationships with them,” she said. “It’s domestic violence.”

Forbes said the only way Louisiana can combat domestic violence is if the community works together.

“We need the mayor, the district attorney, law enforcement, the media, education and faith groups to come together and let everyone know we won’t tolerate violence,” she said.

District Attorney, Hillar Moore, said East Baton Rouge Parish now has a full time domestic violence prosecutor.

Moore said this step will help make the community a safer place.

Mayor Kip Holden spoke at the event, sharing his experiences with domestic violence.

“I came from domestic violence,” he said as he addressed the crowd. “My mother and father fought like cats and dogs . . . there were some mornings we’d wake up wondering if one of our parents were alive.”

Domestic violence does not normally begin with physical or sexual assault, Forbes said.

The abusive partner typically starts with emotional, verbal and financial threats as well as isolation, she said.

Physical and sexual abuse occur when the batterer doesn’t know how else to control the victim, Forbes said.

“Domestic violence is the use of a pattern of behaviors used by one partner to control the behavior and actions of the other,” she said.

A portion of the event featured the names and stories of the dead victims of domestic violence.

As each name and story was read, black silhouettes on posters were raised in the air to commemorate the victim.

For more information on domestic violence visit www.stopdv.org.

Also, the Battered Women’s Program 24 hour crisis line is 225-389-3001.

Event sponsors include the University’s Wellness Center and Women’s Center, the Battered Women’s Program, and the Louisiana Department of Justice.