A.J Diaz Prof.

Morgan 4/24/11 News Story: Red Flag Campaign

Red Flag Campaign Stands Strong Here at Queens University This year at Queens, Student Life and The Health and Wellness Center decided to bring the Red Flag Campaign to campus. The campaigns main goal is to raise awareness of abuse in relationships and how bystanders can prevent it from happening. Jill Perry was one of driving forces in bring this campaign to Queens. She explained, To make this campaign effective we decided the best way to raise awareness of this topic was to put up red flags around popular areas of campus and allow curiosity to make the first impression. After a few days or so of keeping flags out we had put up posters and held events explaining the significance of the red flags. The posters show various young people with red flags covering their mouths and statements written across them. The statements all relate to abuse in relationships such as he makes me think Im fat and stupid and one else would want me and He said if I really love him, Id have sex with him. The red flags are meant to represent the term red flag which refers to when someone sees emotional, physical, or mental abuse in a relationship. A major point for this campaign is to make everyone aware of relationship abuse and how friends and strangers can help prevent it from happening. one of our goals is to involve friends in preventing relationship abuse simply being able to recognize a red flag and then intervening. Getting involved only means stating that abusive behavior is wrong to friends and thats all. One of other the important points to this campaign is to not confuse this with Men bashing, but to involve men with the campaign and show the they too can be abused in relationships. The events on campus helped emphasize this point. Take back the night was held on a Tuesday night where guest speakers would read short essays written by abused students. Jerrit Fuller, a supporter of the campaign was the only male speaker in the event. It was interesting to do the reading. I was expecting an actual script on how men were evil or something, but it turned out to be an essay against the chauvinist attitude. The campaign only drew a few out for Take Back the Night other events such as the rape awareness seminar with Emily Cox had a bigger audience. This was a freshmen year experience, which might have not had the same affect on those who are forced to go. Overall, the campaign made a strong statement against abuse in all relationships and will most likely be back again next year.