In the spirit of Safety Month, a group of FAU’s Resident Assistants created the event which featured information, student poetry and different educational activities all revolving around the issue of domestic violence.
Trenton Dunn, coordinator of Algonquin Hall and FAU grad student, organized the student-driven event.
“People deal with violence in different ways,” said Dunn, who also hosted the show, “They need to know they can express themselves and get the right help.”
While he wasn’t busy being the MC, Dunn sat at the pledge table, where students received a red “Say Something” wristband after making a pledge to themselves to speak out against domestic violence.
Some of the other booths included trivia games and button making stands, where students personalized their own buttons with different slogans, such as “Real Men Beat Eggs” and “Stop the Violence.” There was also an information table that provided pamphlets about rape prevention, dating violence, how to tell if a relationship is abusive and how to deal with it.
“It goes on daily,” said Kris Carter, a freshman at FAU, “People don’t talk about it and they should.” Carter was one of several students who performed original poetry before the audience.
Nadine de la Rosa, a grad student getting her masters in Higher Education, performed a piece from a TV show called Deaf Poetry. She stated that her inspiration was a close friend of hers who dated a series of men who were harmful and wrong for her in a variety ways.
It wasn’t only the poets and RAs who thought it was important that students to learn to be open about relationship violence.
“Young people don’t want anyone to know that they’re going through it,” said Kearsa Roomfield, a freshman Biology major in the audience. “They get embarrassed and try to hide it.”
Lindsey Johns, Resident Coordinator at Heritage Park Towers, agreed that college campuses should make an effort to openly address this issue.
“This is great because students see they’re not alone,” said Johns, who elaborated on the importance of students expressing themselves, saying that it could potentially “prevent things like this from happening on campus.”
Amanda Derienzo, senior RA and Social Work major, explained that Love the Way You Lie was being used as a baseline to start a Red Flag Campaign at FAU. The Red Flag Campaign is a national campaign that originated in Virginia and works against domestic violence in college relationships.
“Love the Way You Lie is a unique event that I’d definitely want to do again next year,” Dunn stated, “I hope students will learn that they don’t have to be silent if they are in dangerous relationships, and there are services that could help them feel safe.”
