In April 2014, 42-year-old Tonya Johnson’s former classmate lost both her son’s life and her own life to her husband after years of domestic abuse.

Johnson, decked out in her Wild Tchoupitoulas Indian traditional clothes,  joined dozens of others rallying in front of Memorial Tower for the 29th annual Take Back the Night event that raises awareness about domestic and sexual violence in hopes of putting an end to them.

She said she wanted to pay tribute to all the victims of domestic and sexual violence by showing them they are not alone in the world.

“The thing I remember most at [her friend’s] funeral was my other classmate getting up, struggling to find words, because he had also dealt with domestic violence,” Johnson said. “You would have never thought that was going on with him.”

This year also marks the first time LSU Student Government played an imperative role in the event, as it coincided with the spring 2015 launch of SG’s “We’re Committed” campaign to end sexual violence.

SG “We’re Committed” student advocate and kinesiology junior Camille Faircloth said the campaign partnered with the LSU Women’s Center , Lighthouse Program, STAR and Baton Rouge Police Department to help sponsor Take Back the Night.

One in four women are sexually assaulted during their college years—an increase from the one in five statistic a few years ago, Faircloth said.

She said SG hopes to extend the campaign to LSU’s athletic programs and fraternity houses.

Faircloth said she thinks sexual violence recently emerged as an important campus issue because the subject was traditionally taboo and consequently overshadowed. Despite the attached stigma, she said the issue is more prevalent than students might realize.

“There is probably someone sitting next to them in class who is going through the same thing,” Faircloth said.

Event sponsors arranged booths promoting each organization, providing access to different resources for victims. The EBR District Attorney’s Office was one of the 40 sponsors.

Criminal Investigator Jeff Malone said his group regularly deals with sex crimes and aids the special victims involved in those crimes.

Malone said, as a male, he wanted to defend the women who come to the DA’s office from the sexual violence he hears about too often.

“I know people who have been victims… I wanted to come over here to represent them and stand behind them,” Malone said.

The Clothesline Project, which travels with Take Back the Night, operates as a living memorial to anyone who has lost their life to domestic violence or for those who endured a domestic violence situation.

Volunteers dedicated a table for event attendees to decorate shirts with inspiring messages for domestic violence victims and pin the shirts on a clothesline honoring all the victims.

Clothesline Project volunteer Becky Moore said the messages strive to encourage victims to escape compromising situations and come forward with their stories.
“A lot of the times the victims feel like they were the ones who did something wrong, so it’s important to get the right message out there,” Moore said.