Inaugural sexual assault seminar held at PJC

Published or Revised October 27, 2010

A free Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault seminar was held recently for the first time at Paris Junior College. Previously, area law enforcement personnel had to travel to Mount Pleasant for the training. There were two sessions in the seminar, both presented by Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) trainer Lyndell Willliams. In the morning a three-hour course on Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault educated law enforcement personnel, counselors and volunteers about investigating sexual assault facilitated by drugs. The afternoon three-hour course was Child and Adolescent Assault Issues. This gave information about perpetrators, types of pedophiles and their tactics in manipulating children. "Law enforcement is here to gain additional information to do their jobs better in aiding victims," said Lisa Luna, with TAASA. "Law enforcement must be re-certified in certain areas annually, and this course meets certain of those requirements. Besides the course being free, attendees didn't have the cost of travel to Mount Pleasant." "This seminar is also for licensed professional counselors and social workers who will use the knowledge to better recognize, deal with and help victims," said PJC Workforce and Continuing Education Program Director Rita Pringle. "We had about 50 participants, and this demonstrates that PJC is happy to provide the community this needed service." The seminar was sponsored by the SAFE-T Crisis Center of Mount Pleasant and TAASA.