Students walking through UF’s campus this week may notice backpacks adorned with purple ribbons, symbols of domestic-violence awareness.
As part of its No More Silence, No More Violence event, UF’s Levin College of Law hopes to give students, faculty, lawyers and judges a platform to discuss their experiences with stalking, domestic violence, sexual violence and intimate partner violence, said Leif Stringer, a resource counselor at Levin. The two-day-long event began Tuesday.
Student organizations will have booths in the college’s courtyard today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Organizers will be passing out purple ribbons to show their support, Stringer said.
“Domestic violence affects more people than we know,” Stringer said. “It’s time we talk
about it.”
At noon, James Colaw, a Circuit Judge in the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, and victim advocate Gretchen Casey will speak about how students can recognize when this violence affects law clients and colleagues, he said.
Stringer said the first-ever event was inspired by a student who was a survivor of sexual assault, who visited his office and talked about the topic with him.
“I asked, ‘Why don’t we do our own thing?’” he said. “‘What messages do you want folks to know?’ And we did it.”
Michael Bennett, a first-year UF law student, said it’s important for law students to understand sexual and domestic violence.
“These are important issues to discuss because as future attorneys, we may have to assist people who have been impacted by these incidents,” the 23-year-old said.
