Goshen College’s Prevention Intervention Network welcomed three experts in sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking for their conversation titled “We Are All Jane Doe: Calling on Community,” on Tuesday night. This event was the second in their series created in response to the  ongoing Cornell rape case.

Chief Andy Stephenson of the Goshen Police Department joined Lizzy Diaz, a sexual assault nurse examiner for Parkview Goshen Hospital. Madeline Maldonado, the College Mennonite Church pastor for community outreach, answered questions in writing beforehand and her answers were read by her daughter, Alicia Maldonado-Zahra, GC’s  scholar activist fellow.

Student PIN leaders Julia Miller, a senior biochemistry major, and Christina Elizalde, a junior elementary education major, asked prewritten questions, then the panel opened questions up to the audience. There were no audience questions.

“I was impressed with Chief Stephenson’s answers,” Elizalde said.

Stephenson spoke about problems within the criminal justice system as well as how people can encourage those who have experienced or witnessed sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking to report it. He said, “What we’ve seen over the years … is both a desire and opportunities for officers to become better trained and more knowledgeable about impact and trauma.”

“They’ve been traumatized in these cases, so we don’t want to add to that trauma or re-traumatize people,” he said.

The goal of the conversation was to show how resources outside of the college can be used to help, in contrast to the previous “We Are All Jane Doe” PIN event, which focused primarily on improving the campus community.

All three emphasized the importance of education in sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking cases. Diaz specifically spoke about how important speaking at events was to her work, as well as how those in the audience could educate their peers on when and how to report instances.

About two dozen people attended the event, and only three audience members were male-identifying. Elizalde quoted Diaz by saying that the experience was “preaching to the choir.”

Elizalde said, “Everyone here … cares about the work that [PIN] does, but I want encourage people to think deeply about the problems that we see on college campuses and outside of college campuses relating to sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.”

Stephenson said, “This is a community in and of itself … with people from all over the world with different cultures and expectations. I think we can do a better job of recognizing that community aspect of things.” 

He said, “Take care of each other. Help each other. Educate one another. Learn from one another.”