Help a Loved One

Landon Harlan:
For someone that’s listening, what would you say would be your immediate advice if they’ve been a victim of sexual assault, what is it that they should do?

Jessica Pride:
I would one realize this is a confusing time and the body, when you’re in shock, you’re going, did this really just happen to me? Is this my fault? What’s going on? What do I do realize that that feeling is normal. So there are a couple things that I would advise you to do. One, preserve the evidence. Don’t take a shower, don’t pee, don’t brush your teeth and collect your clothing. Most survivors, the first thing they wanna do is wash away the memory and clean themselves, right? Because they feel gross and disgusting. And so they get in the shower, they brush their teeth, they wash the sheets, they delete the text messages. So I would say the first thing is don’t do that, preserve it all. Maybe you don’t wanna have a suit. Maybe you don’t wanna go to the police maybe, but save it in case, you know, in a couple days you decide you do wanna do something, do not delete all the text messages or the evidence.

If you are going to get a SAR exam, which is the exam where they go and they collect evidence off of your body, then you will need to do it the sooner in time after the assault the better, especially if you think that you were drugged as your body metabolizes, the drugs or the alcohol, you are losing evidence by the minute. So trying to get to the hospital as soon as possible. And actually about that in California, most people think, and especially San Diego, that you go straight to a hospital and they’re gonna do your start exam there at the hospital. Not true. The exams are actually done in special centers that specialize in SAR examinations. And so the best thing to do is actually stay home, stay home, and call the police, call the police, let them know what has happened to you.

And they will either escort you, or they will tell you where to go, because it is a special location, different on every county and go straight to the start center, take your clothes, take all the evidence. You know, if you have to pee, I mean, that’s kind of one of those interesting things, right? Does everyone have a sterile cup at home? Probably not to pee in intake with you, but just try and minimize how much food and liquids you’re drinking, ’cause you’re helping your body metabolize. And so you’re not gonna get an accurate count on if you were drugged.