New student group to raise abuse awareness

At a time when the Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 32 million Americans are victims of domestic violence, a group of Princeton sophomores has formed a new organization aimed at raising awareness among members of the University community.

Students Against Domestic Violence (SADV) is the creation of founder and president Janay Watts ’10, whose mother was a victim of domestic violence when she was a child.

“People don’t realize it happens [everywhere],” Watts said of domestic violence, which is when one family member or significant other seeks to dominate another either psychologically or physically. She added that it’s a problem that’s often neglected. “[It is a serious] issue but is not necessarily discussed as much as rape or other relationship issues,” she noted.

SADV freshman representative Roland Persaud ’11, added that the group was created because there were “people who had encountered violence, [but there were] no other clubs that focused on it.”

Watts said that SADV will be a “discussion venue for students who have experienced abuse,” who know victims of abuse and who are interested in the topic, and it will offer self-defense classes, spoken word and monthly open discussions.

The group will also collaborate with Sexual Harassment/Assault, Advising, Resources and Education (SHARE) for “Take Back the Night,” an annual rally that raises awareness of sexual violence.

The group is in the process of writing a mission statement that will try to encompass its members’ interests. Domestic abuse can occur in different forms and can have different impacts on victims’ lives.

According to a 2006 report by the General Accountability Office, about 3 percent of American women report domestic abuse to the police every year.

Though SADV was established to inform the Princeton community about domestic violence, Watts did not know of any particular cases of it on campus.

She noted that domestic violence is a problem among college students in general. SADV could potentially collect specific statistics about its prevalence on Princeton’s campus, Watts said.

Persaud, however, said that he had heard of “more than one case of domestic violence [at Princeton],” and therefore “people need to be more aware to handle it.”

SADV has its own facebook.com group, appropriately titled “Students Against Domestic Violence.” The group has 120 members, the majority of whom are African-American female students at Princeton.

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While the Department of Justice has found that domestic violence is generally more prevalent among minority women and men, this is not the driving reason for the involvement of African-American females in the Facebook group at Princeton, Watts said.

The issue of domestic violence “might be concerning the black community more, but not necessarily at Princeton,” Demuren added.

Watts is an active member of the Black Student Union and the Princeton Association for Black Women. The group’s membership is a result of her networking with peers in those organizations, she explained.

Other officers of the group include vice president Mickheila Jasmin ’10, treasurer Erica Clark ’10, secretary Sarita Metzger ’10 and community liaison Hailey Loomis ’10.