Va. Tech Survivor to Speak in Support of Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization

WASHINGTON — The VTV Family Outreach Foundation (VTV) and the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women will urge Congress Tuesday to pass legislation reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and include provisions that will help better protect millions of college and university students.

Colin Goddard, a survivor of the April 16, 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, will speak at the Violence Against Women Act National Rally about how provisions in the new VAWA could have helped campus officials better intervene when the shooter was reported for stalking and other incidents of escalating threatening behavior prior to the shooting.

Incorporating provisions from the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE Act), the Senate-passed version of the VAWA reauthorization bill would update 20-year-old provisions in the Jeanne Clery Act addressing sexual assault to expand them to include dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.

The House-passed version, which incorporates provisions from the Center to Advance, Monitor and Preserve University Security Safety Act of 2011 (CAMPUS Safety Act),  would establish a National Center for Campus Public Safety within the U.S. Department of Justice to help college and universities, among other things, develop improved threat assessment procedures.

VTV is asking Congress to include both provisions in the final VAWA bill.

Read the press release.

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