Educators work to improve campus sexual assault response

LEGOs are unusual tools to describe how trauma affects the brain. 

But for Michelle Trent, associate director of The Compass Center, a box of disarranged colorful blocks can perfectly depict how someone who has experienced a traumatic event, such as a sexual assault, stashes a horrible memory. 

She used the metaphor Wednesday at a sexual assault forum with a group of Sioux Falls higher educators who gathered to discuss how to better respond to students who report sexual assault. A Sioux Falls police detective was also there to talk about the lengthy, often unpleasant process of a criminal sexual assault investigation.  

Trent explained that someone who hasn't experienced trauma can usually remember a whole event, or, in her example, a whole LEGO whale. Someone who has experienced trauma might not remember that whole event, or LEGO whale, and parts of that event might get tossed back into the box, only to be found later. 

"For someone who has just been assaulted, they won't understand why they did something (right away), but years later (he or she) remembers (the assaulter) was wearing a green sweatshirt," she said. 

She wanted the group – made up of representatives from Augustana University, the University of Sioux Falls, Southeast Technical Institute and Sioux Falls Police – to understand why it might be difficult to interview someone who has reported just being sexually assaulted. 

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Avera McKennan's Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Tonya Ellingson talks about what a survivor can expect during a sexual assault evidence kit examination. Jay Pickthorn - Argus Leader

The Compass Center hosted the forum to encourage Sioux Falls educators to learn from each other's practices and give them a chance to meet with a police detective who has worked with campus security teams on sexual assault investigations.

While police and a university will have separate investigations and timelines, both are working with the same survivor and witnesses and should collaborate, said Detective Jon Carda. 

"A relationship with a university is crucial," he said. 

Director for Campus Security at Augustana, Rick Tupper, has known Carda for more than 20 years, a rare type of relationship between a city's police department and a university. The two meet monthly, with others from Augustana and The Compass Center. 

A student who reports a sexual assault to the university doesn't have to report the assault to police, but if they choose to, having a go-to person at the department is helpful and more efficient, Tupper said. Tupper and Augustana Title IX coordinator Beth Elam can better inform a student of what they could expect if they choose to pursue a criminal investigation. 

"I'm going to pry into their lives," Carda said of interviews with survivors. "I have to ask difficult questions. I know what a prosecutor is going to ask them." 

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The group also talked about training for their students, faculty and staff, and the difference between mandatory reporters and confidential resources for students.

Tupper gave a few tips on how to keep compliant with the Clery Act, which requires institutions to report crime that happens on a campus.

They all discussed the added difficulties of being on smaller campuses, such as the task of preventing a survivor from running into his or her assaulter on campus if both are students. 

Trent, who also heads the Sexual Assault Response Team in the area, reminded the various Title IX coordinators and deans of The Compass Center advocates – and encouraged them to call whenever.

Survivors who have an advocate with them while they report a sexual assault are 60 percent more likely to stick with the process than a survivor who reports the assault alone.