In the News

The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA), along with a consortium of partners and agencies, will host a screening and panel discussion of the internationally recognized documentary film “The Voiceless.” This powerful straight to camera film features the stories of five male survivors of sexual violence and panelists will discuss culture, masculinity and other important concepts.

“Every victim deserves justice and we cannot forget that men also experience sexual violence. Male survivors of sexual violence often
face unique barriers due to a variety of factors. Our goal with this screening is to shine a light on these factors and to create a dialogue about the needs of male survivors in general.”

– Turner C. Bitton, UCASA Executive Director

The event is co-hosted by a group of partner agencies including the Men’s Anti-violence Network of Utah, Talk to a Survivor, the Thayne Center at Salt Lake Community College, Pacific Island Knowledge to Action Resources, South Valley Services, Rape Recovery Center and Red Mesa Counseling Center.

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) - You may have seen a billboard posted in multiple locations throughout the Salt Lake Valley that reads “Cosmopolitan Magazine Contains Pornography.” The billboard is part of a campaign to label the magazine as “Explicit Content.” 

Victoria Hearst is an Heiress to the Hearst Corporation, and the creator of the campaign. Hearst corporation owns Cosmopolitan Magazine. Victoria Hearst says she started the campaign, Cosmo Hurts Kids, to get the magazine out of the hands of children. Hearst says when her grandfather originally bought the magazine in 1906 that it was “a classy women’s magazine.” 

Hearst explained that the goal of the campaign is to get it placed on higher shelves and blocked with blinders. 

In early 2017 Hearst enlisted the help of Senator Todd Weiler and an activist against the sexual exploitation of children, Jennifer Brown. The two agree that the magazine is not suitable for children. 

“I've been in dentists offices and doctors offices, and I don't know that anyone knows how bad it's gotten in the magazine, so I applaud her for getting that message out,” explains Senator Weiler. 

However, not everyone agrees that the magazine should be labeled that way. Some people believe the magazine may even have educational value. 

Turner Bitton, the Executive Director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Violence says, “The thing about for example Cosmo...that's traditionally where we would see youth get this information. The things about an organization like that is that they're held to journalistic standards, generally, and there's liability there. No media, no magazine, wants to be responsible for a child being hurt, a child utilizing their information to experience violence or to get into trouble, so there's a little bit of accountability built into the system there.”

Bitton went on to explain that children do, however, need to be learning about healthy relationships as well. He said ideally, youth will get this information from trained professionals and their parents. 

ABC 4 reached out to teens at Salt Lake City’s Planned Parenthood Teen Council to see what they thought about the campaign, and they had mixed responses. 

Grace Ritter, a student from Salt Lake City, says “I think that sex columns in magazines are definitely not how we want to be receiving or teaching young people about sex...It also doesn't provide a lot of integral information that should be there, especially  things about safety and how to keep yourself safe.” 

Another student from Salt Lake City had a different opinion. “I don't think that it's porn. I think it's advice. I think it's to help people in their lives. Sex is a part of your life, and it's not something that you should shy away from,” says Sophia Gener. 

But Victoria Hearst disagrees, and feels compelled by a higher power to keep this magazine out of the hands of those under 18. “I'm not gonna let the devil get away with it, I'm not gonna let the devil sit there and argue that there's another side to pornography,” explains Hearst. 

This article originally appeared on Good4Utah.com. Click here to read the original article. 

Salt Lake City — (KUTV) Jasmine Despain, 24, who was raped while she was in college, is deeply worried about what the new guidelines for campus rape investigations will mean for victims.

“I think it’s devastating for students,” she said.

The guidelines, imposed by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, replace guidelines put in place during the Obama administration.

The Obama guidelines pushed colleges and universities to focus on the well-being of the victim in conducting Title IX investigations.

Victim advocates say the new guidelines put the burden of proof back on victims and give perpetrators the benefit of the doubt.

“It’s an abandoning of moral leadership,” said Turner Bitton.

Bitton, Executive Director of Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA) said Title IX investigations are not to be treated like criminal cases, they are civil rights investigations to determine if assault interfered with a student’s right to an education.

Bitton said DeVos suggested too many students are falsely accused of rape investigations are often unfair to them.

The #ReThinkSchool tour is a wrap! Thank you to all the great educators and students who made it possiblehttps://t.co/LLX2YJrVbY

— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) September 16, 2017

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The Department of Justice is investigating Utah State University for how it handles sexual assault complaints.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is investigating how the university handles sexual assault complaints, said USU spokesperson Eric Warren. He added that the university is cooperating, but did not provide further detail.

Allison Allred, a sophomore studying marketing, shared her experience with the university’s Title IX office, which handles sexual assault complaints.

The Utah Statesman normally does not identify victims of sexual assault, but Allred agreed to be identified by her full name for this story.

Allred attended an off-campus party in fall 2015 with a male acquaintance, who she said sexually assaulted her during the party.

She first went to the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information (SAAVI) office and after telling the office she wished to report her assault to the university, she was told to speak to the university’s Office of Student Conduct. That office enforces the student code of conduct and decides consequences for those found guilty of violating it.

Allred said she imagined — and hoped — the process would end there. She wanted closure and to not have to worry about seeing her assailant, she said.

However, she was then sent to the university’s Title IX office, where she had to relive the experience once again, the third time in just a few days.

“You don’t want to have to relive it,” she said. “To have to go through telling the story over and over again and relive that process is frustrating and humiliating and upsetting to say the least.”

After telling her story to the Title IX office, Allred said she was told that he was not currently enrolled in classes at USU. The office told her the only option was reporting the incident to the police, which she was not comfortable with.

“After (the Title IX coordinator) told me that, the process just stopped and nothing happened, which was frustrating,” Allred said. 

Still, she took comfort in knowing she would not see him on campus.

Or so she thought.

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The director of a Utah coalition says Thursday's announcement by United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is an insult to victims of sexual assault.

“Secretary DeVos’ comments, while they were fairly ambiguous, the message was crystal clear,” says Turner Bitton, executive director for the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a nonprofit organization that provides education and resources to various groups around the state.

Bitton and his group work as advocates for survivors of sexual violence.

DeVos announced she is pushing for an end to the Obama-era rules for Title IX, the law requiring universities to investigate claims of sexual misconduct, as well as ensure a safe and equal environment for all students.is responding to a possible loss of federal support for programs that protect victims of sexual assault. 

He expects the announcement is a precursor to ending sexual assault procedural and processing guidance from the federal government. The education secretary says she is reviewing guidelines some consider to be unfair toward the accused. Included in the law is the “dear colleague” letter that outlines how schools should handle sexual assault allegations.

“I don’t necessarily believe that institutions will quit acting in the best interest of sexual violence survivors,” Bitton said. “Fortunately for the state of Utah, many of our colleges and institutions work well with the community programs in their areas. They’re doing a lot of programming, doing a lot of work to help provide information on sexual violence.”

Although he sees an increase in awareness and advocacy at the local level Bitton says the lack of support from the federal government poses a problem for survivors of sexual violence, especially at universities.

“Without the ‘dear colleague’ letter, really what we risk doing is going back to a day when someone who experienced sexual violence was on their own,’’ he said.

DeVos is not revealing specifics about how she plans to approach Title IX. Bitton says until she does he is being proactive in encouraging universities and colleges to support policies that will still put sexual assault survivors first.

This piece originally appeared on Utah Public Radio. Click here to read the original article and listen to the recording of the broadcast.

SALT LAKE CITY — Local advocates for survivors of sexual assault say college students will be less likely to report attacks in the wake of an address by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday.

Speaking at George Mason University School of Law in Fairfax, Virginia, DeVos vowed to replace an Obama administration system of campus assault enforcement that she says is broken for both survivors of sexual assault and those wrongly accused, and "fails all students."

Too often the conversation has been framed as "a contest between men and women," or the rights of sexual misconduct survivors and the due process rights of accused students, she said.

"The reality is, however, a different picture. There are men and women, boys and girls, who are survivors, and there are men and women, boys and girls, who are wrongfully accused," DeVos said.

"I've met them personally. I've heard their stories. And the rights of one person can never be paramount to the rights of another."

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, who has successfully carried a number of bills on various aspects of sexual assault through the Utah Legislature in recent years, described DeVos' address as "troubling."

"I'm afraid that victims won't report because they'll feel like people won't believe them," Romero said. "There's a reason why we've been heading toward this victim-centric approach to where we give the power back to the victim of sexual assault, and I think we're taking steps back."

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OGDEN — This month’s events in Charlottesville, Virginia, have spurred Ogden’s newly minted commission on diversity to hold its first public event. 

The Ogden City Diversity Commission will hold a “Unity Gathering” from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the Ogden Municipal Building, 2549 Washington Blvd.

The event is free and will be held on the municipal building’s front steps, but could move west to the city amphitheater if crowds are large enough.

Those involved with the event say it was planned in response to the violence that occurred in Charlottesville two weeks ago.

White supremacist groups bearing torches marched through the University of Virginia campus Aug. 11, repeating racist chants while flaunting Nazi paraphernalia. On Aug. 12, police say James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring several others. 

Ogden Diversity Commission member Turner Bitton said Saturday’s gathering will feature discussion on Charlottesville and more broadly, unity and community.

“It came together organically, after looking at what was going on in Charlottesville,” Bitton said of the event. “We talked internally as a commission and staff, and figured (the commission) would be a good mechanism to have this conversation.”

Bitton said the 11 members of the commission will provide thoughts, and members of the public will also be allowed to speak.

“We’re trying to provide the community a spot to gather, talk or just stand in solidarity,” said Viviana Felix, Ogden's diversity affairs officer. “We’ve received comments (about Charlottesville) from several community members and decided this is a discussion we need to facilitate.”

Felix said the gathering is meant to be free-flowing and informal, and everyone is invited.

The Ogden Diversity Commission was formed in September 2016, dedicated to giving a municipal voice to the city’s underrepresented communities.