Wagatwe Wanjuki and Kamilah Willingham, anti-sexual violence activists and co-founders of the new nonprofit organization, Survivors Eradicating Rape Culture, on Monday launched the #JustSaySorry campaign. The activists will be burning formerly treasured items from their former schools until they apologize for how sexual violence has been handled or until they run out of items to burn, and urging other survivors to follow suit on social media.
“This burning might seem a little harsh,” Wanjuki said about her Monday morning Facebook Live stream of burning her formerly most prized possession her first Tufts sweatshirt. “But it’s the only action that feels fitting in this situation. I have kept this sweatshirt all these years because I used to believe in Tufts. I have been speaking about my experience as a campus survivor because I expected better. Schools tell us to expect better from them. But now I see that overall, it’s easy for the school to talk the talk instead of making meaningful action to show that they care about me. That they are sorry about what they did. Or that they at least are sorry that a former student of theirs feels so forgotten and abused.”
I have worked in the campus safety and victims’ rights field for over 25 years, since my own time in college, much of it working directly with survivors of campus sexual violence and activists including Wanjuki (we also serve together as founding Board members of the not-for-profit SurvJustice). The themes of institutional betrayal and re-victimization by flawed systems, especially by institutions survivors had entrusted with their safety, are often front and center in concerns raised by survivors. Sometimes this involves violations of laws like Title IX, which Tufts was found in violation of in cases other than Wanjuki’s or insensitivity. In my experience an apology for this could go a long way to beginning to repair the emotional damage experienced by survivors from that violation of trust.
Other experts share this sentiment. “We must apologize for causing that harm,” said David Lisak, a consultant and clinical psychologist, during Dartmouth College’s Summit on Sexual Assault in 2014. “And that apology must mean something.”
That is exactly what Wanjuki is asking for. “I am giving Tufts another chance. Instead of ignoring survivors like me I am calling for them to acknowledge me and the negative impact on my life by saying sorry.”