Local counselor on Kavanaugh sex assault case: ‘It is everyone else’s story’
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was of great interest to local counselors who help victims of sexual assault.
Those who watched Thursday’s hearing believe it holds a lot weight for victims of sexual assault. “It is everyone else’s story. It’s also the perception of how our leaders view sexual assault in our community,” said Sandra Garcia, the client-services director for El Paso’s Center Against Sexual and Family Violence.
A defiant and emotional Kavanaugh denied allegations he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students and angrily told Congress Democrats were engaged in “a calculated and orchestrated political hit.”
Ford told the senators earlier in the day she was “100 percent” certain a drunken, young Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and clapped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. A Kavanaugh friend stood by and they both laughed uproariously during the incident, which occurred in a locked bedroom at a gathering of high school friends, Ford testified.
In the end, Kavanaugh vowed to continue his effort to join our nation’s highest court, to which President Donald Trump nominated him in July.
Garcia told ABC-7 Ford’s story is very similar to other victims of sexual assault who say they were assaulted as teens and then come forward years later. She hopes the publicity garnered by the Kavanaugh case will inspire other victims to come forward, but on the flip side, is concerned some will think twice about telling their stories after seeing the way Ford has been scrutinized throughout the process.
“We need to hold people accountable and, yet, when we do, does it matter who that person is? Who you are and what situation it happened? It shouldn’t. An assault is an assault is an assault,” Garcia said.
And on the same day Ford gave her testimony, a training session was held at the El Paso Community College headquarters in east El Paso.
Law enforcement from around the area was given training on how to treat victims of sexual assault.
The training was organized by the Texas Association of Sexual Assault (TASA).
Rose Luna is the CEO of TASA, she says the Kavanaugh hearing puts into the spotlight the importance of helping victims of sexual assault.
Specifically, treating them as victims and not as liars.
“We’ve worked with people from the far right to the far left everything in between on the issue of sexual violence,” Luna said. “It is our job to make sure that the reality of sexual assault is what’s front and center regardless of what does make the national news and everyone has a comment about sexual assault.”
