GETTING OUT THE WORD ON DATE RAPE

Week'S Message Aims To Shock Students

Local college students say they don't give much thought to date
rape, but Sexual Assault Awareness Week activities at Scandal's
nightclub got them talking Thursday.

Along with beers and cocktails, bartenders passed out crimson and gold
napkins on Thursday and Friday with the message: "Is your drink safe?
Date rape drugs are odorless, colorless & tasteless. Be safe!"

Lori Bolick, a sophomore at USC Lancaster, said the message got her
attention because she doesn't hear much about date rape or sexual assault.

"I was shocked," said Bolick, who was examining her napkin at the
club's bar Thursday. "That scares me. . . . It's scary to think that
someone can do that to you."

Shock was a welcome reaction to local Sexual Assault Awareness Week
organizers, Jeanne Dairaghi and Kirsten Falkenberg. The pair went to
Scandal's on Thursday night to gauge students' reactions to the message.

Dairaghi, who works for the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Rock
Hill, and Falkenberg, the coordinator of Wellness Services at Winthrop
University, teamed up this year to create the first Sexual Assault
Awareness Week on the Winthrop campus.

During the past week, Dairaghi and Falkenberg hosted forums on date
rape, date rape drugs, and the Clothesline project. The Clothesline
project features an outdoor clothesline with T-shirts painted by
assault victims.

Melissa Kraus, a Winthrop junior who tends bar at Scandal's, came up
with the idea of bringing the message to the club.

"This is where all the kids from Winthrop come," she said. "I don't
hear much about (sexual assault) on campus . . . I think this will
make guys and girls give it a second thought."

Dairaghi targeted Winthrop because many college students are away from
home for the first time and are naive about the subject, she said.

"Some people get their first taste of freedom and want to stay out and
meet people," she said. "They are using more substances than they are
used to, and it puts them at a higher risk."

The No. 1 date-rape drug is alcohol, Dairaghi said. More than 75
percent of woman and 55 percent of men use alcohol just before they
are sexually assaulted, she said.

Winthrop students Ramsey Brantley and Anna Tucker, who were at
Scandal's Thursday, said they have seen girls being taken advantage of
after a night of hard partying.

"Guys will see a girl that is obviously too drunk and ask her if she
wants a ride home, then he'll take her to his apartment," said Tucker,
who was sipping beer and socializing with friends. "They'll wake up
the next morning undressed and not know what happened."

Brantley, who is from Atlanta, said she is used to taking precautions
to avoid these situations. Back home, she said she knew several
friends who had been slipped date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol, also
known as ruffies, through their drinks. Rohypnol, a tranquilizer 10
times more potent than Valium, causes slurred speech, swaying and
memory loss. People drugged with ruffies often cannot remember what
happened to them when they wake up the next day, Dairaghi said.

The Sexual Assault Resource Center in Rock Hill had five to seven
date-rape cases reported involving ruffies last year.

Rock Hill police had 77 sexual assault cases in 1998. The Winthrop
University Department of Public Safety had one.

But being that sexual assault is an underreported crime, there
probably were more, said Linda Hoover, the university's victim advocate.

"I don't think it's that big of a threat at Winthrop," Kraus said.
"But by making people aware of it, it will stop anyone who was
thinking of doing it."