Childcare Crunch, Hit Hard
Your Childcare Crunch article really hit home for me. As president of Real Choices, a pro-life, student organization that advocates resources for pregnant, parenting, and post-abortive women on campus, I am pleased to see that we are not alone in recognizing a strong need for on-site childcare at NC State for parenting students.
Until recently, we had been focusing on providing brochures and pamphlets around campus, and creating a strong social network for student moms by planning social events such as pot-luck dinners and moms’ night out. While these social gatherings are very positive experiences, they don’t help the need for childcare on campus.
The push for inexpensive childcare is now a top priority for Real Choices. In my personal experience in talking to parenting students at NC State, the biggest need is always childcare. Childcare is both expensive and unreliable. Resoundingly, the hardest part of being a student and a parent is trying to get schoolwork done while your kids are demanding constant attention.
Many people don’t know about Real Choices because we are still fairly new, and identifying parenting students has been very challenging. We want all parenting students to know that they have not been forgotten, and we want to help them in any way possible. The student moms I have had the privilege of speaking with are some of the most brave and inspirational women I have ever met. I think it’s time that we gave them a real choice.
Please contact [email protected] to join the mom’s network.
Amy HuttonReal Choices PresidentJunior, Communication
Response: Take Back the Night Failed
Having shared my story many times including a conference for Attorney Generals of all political parties — I always end the same way: “I wish more than anything that I could end tonight by telling you that Adrian is in jail, or has sought help and is no longer a danger to any of us. But in fact, I have quite the opposite update. Adrian now works in the White House as the Director of Strategic Planning for the Republican National Committee.”
Our society holds the pervasive stereotype that people who rape are men with low incomes, uneducated, and without jobs and homes. I try to dismantle this myth by stating that the person who raped me is the opposite, and in fact is in a significant position of power. I would have ended the same way if Adrian was a Democratic Candidate for President as I was simply stating a fact.
By not including this information, I in a sense, would be protecting him. That is not my job. My job is to survive and to use my voice to inform other women about him with the hopes that they will never have to experience what I did.
I commend you on your tremendous courage in sharing you are a survivor of rape and hope you recognize my story was shared in solidarity and with the hope that N.C. State survivors of rape know they are not alone and there is somewhere they can go for support and validation.
Juliette GrimmettRape Prevention Education CoordinatorN.C. State Women’s Center
