UNT raises awareness for national Domestic Violence Awareness Month

You are walking through campus, barely noticing the people around you. Suddenly, you look up and see tiny red flags scattered throughout the grass in front of you. Squinting to get a better look at the writing on each flag, you notice words like "coercion" and "stalking" scrawled across the surface.

October is national Domestic Violence Awareness Month and one of the ways UNT is tackling this issue is by implementing the Red Flag Campaign campus-wide.

The Red Flag Campaign is a project of the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance that utilizes a bystander intervention strategy to address and prevent sexual assault, dating violence and stalking on college campuses. The campaign endeavors to educate students and community members on how to recognize warning signs (“red flags”) of an unhealthy relationship.

Daisah Riley, a Peer Advocate with the Dean of Students office, said that the campaign is geared toward getting people to think about domestic and dating violence, as well as issues like sexual assault and verbal abuse.

“The month goes so much deeper than physical violence,” Riley said. “Domestic violence doesn’t just happen to married couples and it can be present in same-sex relationships too. Even if it hasn’t impacted you, it’s impacted someone you know.”

Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation. Research shows that one in four women and one in seven men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.  Women ages 18-34 are at the greatest risk of becoming victims of domestic violence. 

Taylor Cameron works with Denton County Friends of the Family as a Violence Intervention and Prevention Program Counselor. As part of the UNT Committee on Prevention & Education on Sexual Assault & Intimate Partner Violence, Cameron helps to plan events, campaigns and trainings on the UNT campus to educate students and faculty.

“I think the biggest thing for domestic violence awareness month is to get the message across that abuse is a choice that somebody makes to control or to have power over another person,” Cameron said. “It’s not the victim’s fault. So instead of asking ‘why does the victim stay?’ we need to be asking ‘why does the abuser keep abusing?’”

College is a time of transition and many young people are in the process of figuring out what they want to do with their lives. Relationships can be an integral aspect of a young adult’s life, and learning how to have a healthy relationship is important.

“The Red Flag Campaign is important because we have a large group of individuals [students] who are in a time of their life where they’re figuring out what they want to be,” College of Education senior lecturer Uyen Tran said. “A part of being a mature adult is knowing how to have healthy relationships. In order for us to change the dialogue on campus about sexual assault and domestic violence, it’s going to take all of us; students, staff, and faculty. ”

For any questions about ways to get involved in domestic violence and sexual assault awareness, please email Renée LeClaire McNamara at Renee.LeClaire@unt.edu or visit the Dean of Students website about sexual violence at deanofstudents.unt.edu/compliance/title-ix.

If you or someone you know has been impacted by domestic violence or sexual assault on campus, email SurvivorAdvocate@unt.edu, call the Dean of Students office at 940-565-2648, or call Denton County Friends of the Family’s 24-hour crisis line at 940-382-7273 for more information on resources and what to do next.