Campus Safety Advocates To Support Brzonkala At Supreme Court

Christy Brzonkala, along with Jennifer Byron and S. Daniel Carter of Security On Campus, Inc.

Washington, DC-In 1994 Virginia Tech freshman Christy Brzonkala was one of several thousand women sexually assaulted on our nation's college campuses. Loopholes in the school's sexual assault policy allowed both of her alleged rapists to remain on campus and continue to play football while she was forced to leave school because of emotional trauma and a fear for her own safety.

Brzonkala isn't alone according to campus safety advocates, women violently assaulted on our nation's college campuses in gender-motivated assaults may often be denied equal protection in campus disciplinary proceedings based more on economics and public relations than justice.

"We all suffer in a system that deems crimes against women as secondary," said Jennifer Byron the Northeast Regional Vice President of Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC) a national non-profit campus safety organization. Byron a 29 year old New York City attorney is herself a survivor and helped to develop language in the Violence Against Women Act almost a decade ago.

Today Brzonkala's quest for justice will take her to the U.S. Supreme Court in a test of the VAWA, a 1994 law enacted just days before her assault. It allows victims of gender-motivated violence to sue their attackers. Congress enacted the VAWA after finding that such violence has adverse economic affects that fall within their ability to regulate interstate commerce, and that states weren't ensuring that the victims of these crimes were receiving equal legal protection as required by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Byron will be sitting in the nation's highest court today supporting Christy Brzonkala. She will be joined by Howard K. Clery, III and S. Daniel Carter also of Security On Campus, Inc. which has for many years stood behind Brzonkala's pursuit of justice. Brzonkala also testified alongside Clery's mother, Connie, and brother, Ben, at a 1996 Congressional subcommittee hearing on campus crime.

Clery's family founded Security On Campus, Inc. in 1987 following his sister's 1986 murder on the campus of Lehigh University by another Lehigh student Jeanne didn't know. The King of Prussia, PA based non-profit organization is the only nationwide group providing services free of charge to the victims of campus violence and their families.