Centra Southside Community Hospital is still not offering rape kits, in Farmville. Upon hearing about this issue, the College Republicans of Longwood University Club decided that they were going to do something to address this issue.
The club has decided to start a petition to try and encourage Centra Southside Community Hospital to be reequipped with the proper materials in order to attend to those who have been victims of sexual assault.
The idea to start the petition “came from my girlfriend, Ashlynn Kaufman, who was doing an assignment for class regarding a social problem in Farmville, and how to go about addressing that issue,” said the College Republicans of Longwood President Cameron Kolmer. “She chose to write about the lack of rape kits at Centra Southside Community Hospital. Being that we are both members of the College Republicans of Longwood University, we believed it would be a great bipartisan issue to advocate for. So at the next meeting we brought forth the idea to be voted on and everyone overwhelmingly agreed. Not long after that, our organization created the petition and it began to spread like wild fire.”
“We currently have 339 signatures,” said College Republicans of Longwood University Treasurer Kellie Marsh.
“We are very pleased to announce that the Criminal Justice Honor Society, Alpha Phi Sigma, and the Criminal Justice Academic Fraternity, Lambda Alpha Epsilon, have announced their support and are interested in getting involved, said Kolmer.
Since this is a bipartisan, Longwood, Farmville, Prince Edward and surrounding county issue, “we hope that more organizations will back this cause and encourage others to support our petition,” said Kolmer.
The University of North Texas is also promoting similar petitions, actively advocating for rape kits. Members were petitioning their Health and Wellness Center to provide rape kits to any students that were victims of rape. Unfortunately, they were not successful in getting rape kits available to the student body, but they received quite a bit of media attention including an article on USA Today.
The College Republican of Longwood is also using social media (Facebook and Twitter) to promote the petition made on change.org. “We are also encouraging other organizations on campus to announce their support and in return we will list their organization’s name on the wallpaper being used as the face of the petition,” added Kolmer.
Kolmer added that the petition’s issue is “much bigger” than what one organization can handle, and could use all the help needed from other organizations. “Only through networking can this petition yield results,” he said.
Marsh hopes Centra will soon be able to be equipped with the rape kits. “It is a service that is much needed in this community,” said Marsh. Finally, Mr. Kolmer stated, “We hope to gain the satisfaction that Longwood students can unite and make a difference in the community. Through creating enough noise, we hope that our solidarity can get the attention and support of individuals in positions of power that can persuade Centra to provide the necessary resources to administer rape kits here in Farmville.
According to Marsh, the website for the petition can be accessed from the College Republicans at Longwood University Facebook page.
