Milwaukee Hospitals, the SAFER Act and Campus Safety

The three following petitions discuss rape kits, survivors of rape and sexual violence. A petition created by SlutWalk Milwaukee on Change.org, discusses how rape survivors are being sent away from two Milwaukee hospitals. The author states, “Aurora Sinai Medical Hospital and Aurora West Allis Memorial Hospital are the ONLY Milwaukee-area health centers that staff Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) personnel 24 hours a day. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin staffs responders that are specific to the needs of children and youth. Every other area hospital does not staff any responders for sexual assault.” Currently SANE responders are trained in administering rape kits and telling victims where to go for support, while also being trained for particular circumstances. Even though SANE responders give special and quality care to victims, hospitals chose not to employ them because they do not bring in more money to the hospital. As Maureen Haig, one of the signers of the petition, states:

“I am signing because having compassionate, trained responders is VITAL for a person who is dealing with this trauma. Hospitals should insure that someone on staff (train people who are already there) will be available on any shift. It’s extra training that I am sure some staff members would be willing to do and something that hospitals shouldn’t have to be told to do.”

I agree with Maureen one hundred percent that every hospital should have SANE responders that are able to care for and assist the patient. It does not seem unreasonable that SANE responders are there 24 hours a day, seven days a week just as cardiologist would be. 

The second petition from Change.org also deal with rape though it is about passing the SAFER Act in an effort to end backlog for rape kits. In the petition created by RAINN, the SAFER Act is defined as “a no-cost bill that will lead to the elimination of the DNA backlog of evidence collected in rape cases (commonly known as rape kits). Currently there is a tremendous backlog of DNA evidence from unsolved rape cases that has never been sent to the lab for analysis.” Much in the same way that every hospital needs SANE responders, rape kits must be analyzed in an effort to help victims and prosecute rapists. Other reasons for the SAFER Act include “The SAFER Act will bring transparency to the testing process, help us efficiently target resources to areas that have the biggest backlogs, and empower survivors.” This seems like a no brainer, as one of petition signer, LB asks, “Does it both anyone else that we even have to sign this in the first place?” Why does this even have to become an act before something is done? Rape kits should not be backlogged and every kit should be analyzed!

The third petition created by Security on Campus is discussing the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act. The petition discusses the campus violence as “Did you know that fall semester of freshmen year is the most likely time to be sexually assaulted? Did you know only 5% of women raped in college ever report? One in four college women face extreme sexual violence on campus, as well as high risks of stalking or intimate partner violence.” Again this seems like a no brainer, every student attending school should feel safe and free to do their normal activities. Some of the benefits of the Campus SaVE Act include “universities to provide education on primary prevention, risk reduction, consent, reporting and bystander intervention throughout the school year. Collaboration will also be established between the U.S. Department of Justice, Education, and Health & Human Services to develop best practices for campuses seeking to prevent violence.” 

In “Victims, Villains and Vixens,” Lynne Y. Edwards discusses crimes against girls. Edwards discusses how the media can distort a victim’s story, in one instance through a direct quote by the victim would appear that she lead to her victimization “‘I said I had a lot of problems,’ she told the jury. ‘He said that if I had sex with him when he wanted, then I could do whatever I wanted outside of that.’ While the victim is allowed to tell us her role in the crimes committed against her, she is not permitted to directly tell us about the horrors she experienced” (21). Just as every victim should have the right to safely go about their life, have proper medical care and properly have their rape kit tested, they also deserve to have a voice in telling what occurred to them. The victim should be the one on trial or sent away from a hospital, they should be able to have their rapist convicted. They should be able to able to sleep at night knowing they are safe.