In June 2018, 40 University of Idaho football players crowded into the Kibbie Dome Lighthouse Center for training — a training without practice footage, pads or helmets.
Over the course of two days, the student-athletes completed a six-hour extended Green Dot Bystander training. The nation-wide bystander intervention program focuses on giving people the tools and resources necessary to recognize and reduce interpersonal violence.
The hour-long Green Dot training is mandatory for all athletic personnel and student-athletes. However, the football program elected to take the extended six-hour training instead.
“Guys took it seriously,” said Conner Vrba, Idaho linebacker. “We’ve had people say they kind of feel better at parties when they know there is a football player there because they know if something is going on we have the confidence to step in and help out.”
The trainings, which vary in length, consist of videos, lectures and interactive activities, said Emilie McLarnan, UI coordinator for Violence Prevention Programs. The large group of athletes participating in the summer training not only engaged, but eagerly participated in the activities throughout the course of the program, she said.
“There was an activity where you look at a silent video and call out the warning signs of risky behaviors, and they were like, yelling so loud. Most of them were on their feet,” McLarnan said. “My ears were ringing for hours afterwards.”
The Violence Prevention Program began in 2007, McLarnan said. But Green Dot came to the UI campus in 2011 after the then-ASUI student government decided it was the best program to address issues surrounding violence and harassment.
“The intent is that it’s not a permanent fixture on a campus, that we get to a point where the culture on our campus has changed enough so that it doesn’t need to be like its own thing because the norms on the campus have shifted enough,” McLarnan said.
The athletic department adopted Green Dot in 2014, when bystander training for all coaches, faculty, staff and student-athletes became mandatory.
While the program has been part of the department for several years, Claire Johnson, Student Athlete Advisory Committee president and former UI soccer player, said Green Dot’s role throughout athletics increased in recent years.
“It (violence prevention) has just become more of a regular topic in a conversation — and I think it needs to be,” Johnson said. “It is being brought to attention in the right ways. People are becoming informed, people are being taught about it, they are being given the tools so it is not just discussed and then left to be discussed and forgotten about.”
Since coming to the UI campus, Green Dot trainings have occurred in many different programs and departments. The training is one that not only equips those who go through it to identify violent or harassment situations and step in, but set a strong example on campus.
As recognizable names and faces on campus, student-athletes are often expected to set these examples in their community.
“That’s what comes with the territory when you chose to sign your name on the dotted line that you want to play for a university, then you bring that university’s reputation with you everywhere you go whether you like it or not,” linebacker Rahsaan Crawford said. “At the end of the day, when you chose to be a student-athlete for a university, you chose that responsibility whether you like it or not.”
The athletic department’s adoption of the program is part of ongoing communication between Green Dot and the department, said Bekah MillerMacPhee, Office of Violence Against Women project director.
“Having people in different places like the athletic department buy into it makes a big statement,” MillerMacPhee said. “But (when) you have our athletic director go through and talk about how much he likes it, people are going to listen to it a different way because it’s not his job to say that.”
The emphasis on the program starts at the top, wide receiver Jeff Cotton said. The importance of preventing interpersonal violence not only comes from the trainings, but from coaches as well.
“Coach (Paul) Petrino does a good job of always telling us to treat women with respect,” Cotton said. “Some of us got sisters and we all got mothers, so think about how you would feel if someone put their hands on your sister or mother.”
The ongoing relationship between the athletic department and campus resources is one MillerMacPhee said is a unique back-and-forth partnership.
“I do think it’s unique. And I do think it’s pretty special,” MillerMacPhee said. “I think it really benefits all of our students, not just student athletes.”
The strong relationship between the two departments is one Crawford is proud of.
“To know that I am a part of it, it is a pat on the back. But it is also a task. You got to get people to do the right thing,” Crawford said. “As I take on this responsibility, it feels rewarding.”
As survivors come forward with personal #MeToo stories, the conversation surrounding sexual assault and interpersonal violence continues to move forward, MillerMacPhee said.
“It’s a conversation starter. I think it’s given people language to talk about sexual violence,” MillerMacPhee said. “Which is really important, because it’s a hard thing to talk about. And if you don’t have somebody modeling vocabulary around it, or how to have conversation, how to start a conversation, then it’s just a big huge barrier to talk about something.”
The conversation is one that has hit home within the athletic department.
In January 2018, former UI swim and dive athlete Mairin Jameson came forward about her assault from 2013, where a football player — Jahrie Level — reached up her skirt at a local bar and groped her. He continued harassing her and other women in the athletic department.
Jameson’s story eventually led to the firing of former Athletic Director Rob Spear last year amid allegations of Title IX mishandlings.
After, Johnson said there was a noticeable shift in conversation and an emphasis on Green Dot trainings — what used to be simply a mandated training became a necessary learning experience.
“It was something our athletic department needed in the sense that it needed to be brought to light, and I think that it for sure did,” Johnson said. “It is unfortunate that things have to happen for people to feel passionate about it, but I think our look on it as an athletic department has completely altered in the past four years — they’ve been progressing so much.”
Green Dot and its participants continue to strive toward shifting the conversation surrounding interpersonal violence. Recent cases coming to light on campus not only capture the program’s importance, but emphasize its necessity, MillerMacPhee said.
“It has confirmed the need to be committed to this education,” MillerMacPhee said. “It would be really nice if once we started implementing this programming, those things would just stop. But they won’t. It takes time. And so, I think that it has really confirmed the need for that commitment.”
Story by Meredith Spelbring
Photos by Joleen Evans & Olivia Heersink
Design by Grayson Hughbanks