The West Point Sexual Harassment Assault Response Prevention (SHARP) team hosted the Walk A Mile in observance of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM) April 24 at the Beat Navy Tunnel and sidewalk area along Eisenhower Hall.
The West Point community, cadets, staff and faculty participated in the walk to bring awareness and empower the community to end sexual violence.
West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland offered remarks bringing awareness to ending sexual violence and looking out for each other as teammates within the community and throughout the Army.
Everyone who walked the route viewed signs describing the statistics and what happens to a sexual assault victim after an incident.
“It happens quite often. It happens more often than we certainly want it to happen,” Gilland said. “But to have an understanding of what the scale is, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect.”
Gilland reminded the gathering of community participants that the statistics posted along the walk represent “a person, a human being.”
“It’s about being a good human being and treating each other with dignity and respect,” Gilland said. “I think when we take a step back, take a deep breath, have some reflection and gain some understanding of (those statistics) it is pretty impactful.”
Gilland said this is an opportunity to educate and inform each other as a community to not only the young people, the cadets, but also among the noncommissioned officers, officers, families and civilian workforce.
“It’s just part of being a good teammate,” Gilland stated. “Accountability for ourselves, but also accountability of others.”
He asked everyone in attendance, “What are we doing? What are we doing every single day to stop some potentially bad behavior, intervene and prevent something from ever starting.”
“It takes all of us as a community to do that,” Gilland explained. “We talk about developing leaders of character (at West Point). I look at it through the lens of character is prevention and prevention is character.
“I will emphasize that good character is prevention,” he concluded. “And how do we all actively take part in that and help each other.”
Throughout the day, the community also wore denim as it is Demin Day, which supports sexual assault survivors.
“Do we understand what Demin Day is? It’s not just to wear a pair of jeans to go into the workplace or the office,” Gilland said. “Wearing a pair of jeans is symbolic. We’ve got to make sure that our folks understand that and because someone wears a pair of jeans that’s not some invitation for assault or harassment.”
There was also a resource fair at Eisenhower Hall’s Riverside Café for attendees to gain more knowledge and empower themselves to helping those who become victims or just helping prevent sexual violence.
Part of the resource fair was understanding the Walk A Mile, which started in 2001. Gilland said its origin was “about walking in someone else’s shoes and, specifically at the time, it was walking in women’s shoes.”
“As we know, sexual assault and sexual harassment just doesn’t happen to women, it can happen to both men and women,” Gilland said. “The Walk A Mile has evolved over time as we talk about not only understanding what other people go through, but also understanding the scale of it, which I think is important.”