One in four women and one in 13 men will be victims of stalking in their lifetime according to the Stalking Resource Center of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

January is national Stalking Awareness Month. AACC has been participating by doing 31 days of stalking awareness facts and advice on social media.

“A lot of people don’t know what it actually means to be stalked or how it changes a victim’s life,” said Chris Pineda, president of the Student Association. “Most people don’t know how to help people who are being stalked, either. That’s what we’re hoping to help with.”

Students can find these facts by visiting the Facebook and Twitter pages of the Student Association, the New Students, the Student Engagement, Service Learning and the Campus Activities Board.

“We’ve been tasked by the president to make sure that information about that type of prevention is included, [and that] there’s educational opportunities for new and returning students,” said Danielle Brookhart, coordinator of new student engagement.

This Violence Against Women Assault (VAWA) project is the beginning of an effort to comply with the mandate that the president has given that every college make their students more aware of Title IX. Title IX is a civil rights law that “addresses sexual assault, domestic violence prevention, and stalking awareness,” said Brookhart.

On Jan. 27, the Student Government Association, the Campus Activities Board, the Improv club and the Violence Against Women Act committee will be performing a skit in the dining hall at 1 p.m..

Select student members of each club will portray either a stalker or a victim. At the end of the skit, the clubs will ask their audience what they learned from the skit that they watched.

“I think that the issues of sexual assault and stalking are not really talked about on this campus as much as they should be,” said Teisha Miles, president of the Campus Activities Board. “I think it’s important for people to be aware about the safety of the public.

Sometimes we don’t even know that someone is being stalked.” Nowadays, there are many ways for a victim to be stalked: being followed or watched, receiving threatening phone calls or hang-ups, receiving hate mail, or them posting your photo and personal information on the Internet.

Being stalked affects a person both emotionally and physically. A victim of stalking might show signs of intense feelings of fear or terror, according to the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Other signs include decreased energy level or exhaustion, increased anger, irritability or agitation, and frequent sadness or crying.

“We’re trying to instill the idea of ‘if you see something, do something’ [because] she is somebody’s sister, daughter or mother,” said Brookhart.

Members of the participating club will be giving out flyers from the AACC’s health center and AACC’s counseling center to students in the dining hall.

“[Although] we’re not a residential college, these kinds of things do happen, and we really want students to know that it’s okay to step in and help out,” said Brookhart. “And I also want our female students especially, to feel comfortable. It’s really about education.”

Every school has a VAWA coordinator. For more information about Title IX or the event taking place in the dining hall at 1 p.m., contact AACC’s VAWA coordinator Dr. Jacqueline Jackson by calling 410-777-2830 or visiting her office in SUN 222.