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Cal Poly students, community members rally to support sexual assault survivors

Posted at 10:31 PM, Apr 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-26 01:45:26-04

Cal Poly students and community members rallied in downtown San Luis Obispo Thursday to Take Back the Night and support survivors of sexual assault.

Take Back the Night is a national event that happens on April 25 every year.

The event in San Luis Obispo was hosted by Cal Poly’s Safer program, which gives resources to survivors of sexual assault.

Safer intern and event organizer Grace Vankirk said a huge part of Take Back the Night is to end sexual violence, but there are a lot of hurdles to make sure this happens like state legislation, changes in the Title IX laws and people’s perspectives of sexual assault survivors.

“The whole stigma that a lot of reports are false reporting is also really detrimental to a lot of survivors,” Vankirk said.

The rally was part of raising awareness for sexual assault awareness month, which is honored throughout all of April.