exual assault is a growing concern on all college campuses. The Lawrence Journal World reports that this weekend four rape victims went to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital seeking treatment after being sexually assaulted, two of these women were turned away and sent to Topeka to be treated.
Rape victims are being turned away from Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and it’s creating a risk to the community, according to claims made by Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson.A series of events at LMH on Sunday sent the prosecutor over the edge. He said two college-age rape victims were told to go to out-of-town hospitals to be examined.
“This is a problem that’s been ongoing for a while. We’ve had women and children (sent) to facilities outside of our community for years now,” Branson said. “We just have to get something done.”
After waiting in the hospital for several hours on Sunday, Branson said, the two victims were told they would have to go to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka to be examined.
“There is an incredible amount of shame and embarrassment associated with being the victim of an attack. It takes great courage for a survivor to come forward,” Branson said in the letter. “For them to suffer yet another indignity at being turned away from the emergency room is unconscionable.”Sarah Jane Russell, executive director of GaDuGi Safe Center, a Lawrence sexual assault victim’s advocacy organization, said her organization had provided services to 108 sexual assault victims so far this year.
“We very well may be seeing more days where we have more than one person present at a hospital who’s been sexually assaulted,” Russell said. “What is our response to that? We cannot keep sending people away from our community.”
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