“No Woman Left Behind”: Encouraging the Notion of Becoming an Active Bystander

On March 4, 2007, Lauren Chief Elk and April Grolle, two members of the De Anza College soccer team, were leaving a house party when they sensed that something suspicious was going on in one of the back rooms where the door was closed and the lights were turned off. In ktvu.com‘s coverage of the incident, which includes interviews with both girls, Chief Elk says, “We heard and saw a girl tapping on this door in the kitchen saying ‘There is a girl in there with eight guys.'” While trying to enter the room, they were stopped by a baseball player, but caught a glimpse of what was happening through a crack in the door.

Chief Elk recounts, “When I looked in, I saw about ten pairs of legs surrounding a girl, lying on the mattress on the floor and a guy on top of her with his pants down and his hips thrusting on top of her,” and Grolle adds, “And when I saw that I knew immediately something wasn’t right. It just didn’t look right.”I saw that this young girl did not want to be in there, and that’s when we just went ‘We’re getting this girl out of there.'”

But this was not the end of their descriptions.

Chief Elk continues, “This poor girl was not moving. She had vomit dribbling down her face. We had to scoop vomit out of her mouth [and] lift her up. Her pants were completely off her body. She had her one shoe one, her jeans were wrapped around one of her ankles and her underwear was left around her ankles. To the left of the bed there was some condom thrown on the ground.”

“When they lifted her head up, her eyes moved and she said ‘I’m sorry,'” says Grolle. “One of the guys who was in the room said ‘This is her fault. She got drunk and she did this to herself.’

Chief Elk remarked that in order to give consent the girl had to have been conscious. And she hadn’t been—she was raped. The girls were the only ones to take the victim to the hospital for treatment after the horrible ordeal. After telling their story, Lauren Chief Elk and April Grolle (and most importantly, the victim) never saw justice—the district attorney said, “there would be no charges.” Though the girls’ story didn’t lead to the conviction of the rapists (though it most certainly should have), it has inspired a powerful movement dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assualt–and hopefully ending it.

After Chief Elk and Grolle’s inspiring story of intervention, the “No Woman Left Behind” Campaign was born. The campaign’s Facebook page introduces its goals: “No Woman Left Behind (NWLB) is a bystander intervention program created by women for women and the men who care about them. It was established to educate communities about sexual assault and to create a culture that does not wait for someone else to take action. In addition to serving as a public awareness campaign this program includes, curriculum based educational initiatives for college students as well as functioning NWLB chapters located on campuses throughout the country.”

In the spring of 2010 One Student (formerly Unite for Change) became the official headquarters for the No Woman Left Behind Campaign. They offer this video as a testimony for their mission:

While the No Woman Left Behind Campaign was scheduled to come to JMU on February 21, 2011, it seems that the event has been canceled. This is quite a shame because if there is any campus that could benefit from having such an event, it would be JMU. As the all-male sexual assault awareness group, “One in Four,” says, “In a woman’s college career, 1 in 4 women are a victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault before they graduate.” Sexual assault is prevalent on the JMU campus, and both male and female students would benefit from hearing about the No Woman Left Behind Campaign. I hope that they will be able to schedule another visit to the campus in the future!

-Lauranium