How to Stay Safe on Campus: Interview with Michael Bicking, Head of Public Safety at Eastern College

Sheila Weir is a life coach who has a special passion for helping victims of abuse.  She practices Core Energy coaching, which is focused on helping her clients create and maintain the energy that they need to live a life filled with abundance and purpose.  In this episode Ms. Weir discusses her practice, what she sees as the challenges that abused women face and how she works with them to take back their power.  

Ms. Weir is the founder of The Elephant Mofit.  You can explore more about her practice at https://www.elephantmotif.com.

Victims of sexual abuse are unfortunately getting younger, as are their perpetrators. Despite the depiction of adolescents as “young adults” in our media, we must remember that they are not. They are children. A 17-year-old assault victim is a child who has been assaulted. The distinction between adults and children is critical.  We must remember that the human brain is not fully developed until the early 20s. Although we often use the rhetoric that children are “resilient”, this is not borne out when children are abused. We know that victims who don’t receive the proper treatment are more likely to suffer future abuse and lose their “life momentum”. It is critical, therefore, that we seek out medical treatment when childhood abuse is suspected. 

I had the privilege of talking with Dr. Allison Jackson who serves as the division chief of the Child and Adolescent Protection Center of the Children's National Medical Center. She's also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University. For over 19 years Dr. Jackson has been evaluating and treating children victimized by all forms of child maltreatment. In addition to her medical responsibilities, she provides physician leadership to the District of Columbia's multidisciplinary team on child abuse.

It takes a village to protect victims of abuse and assault. That village by necessity requires the strong support of men who care deeply about the lives of women.  These are men who recognize that they were born of women, that women are the glue that keeps families together and are often the strength of communities.  They know that without strong and healthy women and girls, we imperil our future.

I had the privilege to interview one such man who has been working hard for over a decade to keep women safe through legislative and advocacy efforts.  

Mr. LeGrand is an attorney and consultant who served as a lead Democratic Counsel in the House of Representatives working on the reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which were passed and signed into law by President Obama in March 2013.  After leaving Capitol Hill, Mr. LeGrand joined the National Network to End Domestic Violence as its VP of Public Policy.  

In addition to his current consulting work, Mr. LeGrand engages strongly with organizations that are supporting boys and men to make good choices, and to redefine masculinity in a way that supports the health of the entire community, including its women. 

An extraordinary woman can do extraordinary things out of horrific circumstances. Hellen Tanyinga is such a woman.  In 2009, Ms. Tanyinga started the Rape Hurts Foundation (RHF), an NGO in Uganda to help girls and women who have suffered abuse in its many forms and to stop human trafficking. She understood the impact of rape.  She was raped as a child while getting water for her family.  As she told me “I named the foundation ‘Rape Hurts’ because rape hurts.” 

The Rape Hurts Foundation has now expanded to support children who are at risk of abuse, including boys who are increasingly the targets for sexual abuse. Ms. Tanyinga is not simply supporting girls and women who have been raped or trafficked.  She is changing the culture by changing how girls, boys and women perceive themselves and giving them the means to control their destiny.   

The road to bringing perpetrators to justice can go through the criminal and/or civil justice system(s).  Considering the relatively small percentage of assault cases that are brought forward by district attorneys, especially in the case of intimate partner abuse, the civil legal system is an avenue to punish perpetrators. 

The impact on the victim of assault and abuse are high.  There is a substantial physical, emotional and economic cost to untreated trauma.  The victim may not have resources to ensure that she can get the services that have the potential to get her well and functioning.  A civil remedy may be the best way to ensure that the victim gets financial support for her recovery AND generate acknowledgement that she was harmed.  This may be especially important for intimate partner violence where children are involved and monetary resources  are used a weapon to keep the victim silent.

After my daughter was assaulted, we sought out legal counsel at the encouragement of people who had witnessed or been through sexual assault.  Without this knowledge, I’m not sure that I would have reached out to an attorney.  For us it was a way to seek a remedy to the crime that had occurred.  It also gave some power and voice back to my daughter.  That’s why I’ve reached out to renowned attorney Eric MacLeish to speak to the audience on Life After Abuse Pod. 

Mr. MacLeish was instrumental in getting a remedy for many victims in the Boston Archdiocese Priest abuse scandal and has continued to advocate for victims of sexual assault.

"New parents with college students believe that there is this safe order around all the colleges [and] that everything is going to be fine because the college is a safe environment. Well I would tell you that there is no place that is a hundred percent safe.”

In my interview with Michael Bicking, find out what you should do if you are a victim of a sexual assault on a campus. Mr. Bicking also discusses the obligations that colleges have under title IX and VAWA to both prevent assault and support victims.

Check out other blogs on campus sexual assault at lifeafterabusepod.com

Prior to his current position as Director of Public Safety at Eastern University, he was employed with West Chester University Department of Public Safety for 32 years, the last 28 years, Michael served as Director of Public Safety & Chief of Police.  Director Bicking holds a BA in Political Science from Lycoming College and has completed course work for a MS in Criminal Justice at West Chester University. Michael hold a certification in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and is a graduate of the Gavin DeBecker Advance Threat Assessment and Management Academy. Michael is an experienced presenter and expert in numerous topics including Crime Prevention, Physical Security, Police Services and Threat & Risk Assessment. Michael is a senior consult with Standing Stone Security Consulting. Michael has instructed with the Clery Center since 2014.

I’m going to focus on findings from a Columbia University/Barnard cohort (group of students) that was surveyed in 2016 as part of the SHIFT or Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) study. The study is very well conducted and the analysis is solid.  

In 2017 my life changed forever after my oldest daughter was raped on a college campus. Just when I thought that this was the worst blow I would ever suffer as a parent, my younger daughter was also raped while attending a boarding high school the following year.

I believe that the time has finally come to burn down all of the horrible, old-fashioned ideas that are keeping women at risk for violence induced trauma. 

For more information go to: lifeafterabusepod.com