This story contains mentions of sexual assault 

The Health and Wellness Center hosted an event on Wednesday for students to design shirts to show support for sexual assault survivors. 

Students will hang the shirts on a clothesline on the Health and Life Sciences Building patio at a follow-up event on Oct. 31.

“Love is … not supposed to hurt,” Sexual Violence Prevention Project Director Katie Keys said. “It’s supposed to be caring and supportive.”

The Clothesline Project is a national event that started in 1990. Sexual assault survivor Rachel Carey-Happer, the creator, took inspiration from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt,  which started in 1985.

The AACC Clothesline Project is back for the first time since 2019, according to Keys.

“It’s really beautiful to be able to see so many people come together,” Keys said. “It’s really special.”

According to Keys, community colleges sometimes have incidents of sexual violence.

“These are experiences that our students are having and I want to shed light on that,” Keys said. “I especially want to be able to connect everyone with the resources that we have on campus, because so often it’s almost like every day that I hear, like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know we had this.’”

Keys added: “I just want to be able to make it as easy as possible [to seek help].”

Students said they found the event impactful. 

“I’m a survivor of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, and so I was, like, ‘This is amazing,’ like, I’m so happy the school is doing this,” third-year nursing student Lili Pastor said.

“And, like, specifically, so happy that this is something from, like, The Health and Wellness Center because, you know, somebody had to do all this work for us and so, like, I really appreciate that they took that step.”

First-year transfer studies student Kai Johnson agreed.

“I grew up around people who were a part of, like, domestic violence relationships and sexual abuse, so things like that,” Johnson said. “And honestly, I haven’t thought about it in a while, or even really voiced it in my own way. And so this event kind of forced me to stop and take a minute to really make something like the T-shirt kind of represents how I’ve grown and what I’ve learned from getting myself out of those situations.”

Sexual assault victims can get help by calling the a countywide, 24/7 hotline at 410-222-6800.