You may already have come across one of the many blogs discussing Kyle Payne’s recent guilty plea. According to the Iowa Independent:
In documents filed with the court, Payne agrees that “with an intent to arouse my sexual desire, I photographed and filmed Jane Doe and her breast without her consent.”
By now you may be wondering, “Who the heck is Kyle Payne?”
He’s a former sexual assault advocate.
Yeah, you read that right.
What Payne did will have serious repercussions, and not just for the woman he violated. This affects the survivors he “counseled” (and really, who knows what he was doing during those counseling sessions? For all we know he was just getting off on hearing stories of violation, and further traumatizing the people he counseled). It will also make the work of every legitimate male anti-sexual violence activist that much more difficult, as their motives are questioned at the expense of their message.
I wish it weren’t so, but the damage is done. So what can we do now?
First, we can make sure that college programs designed to offer advocacy for survivors of sexual assault are funded well enough to ensure that they are effectively supervised and that student volunteers are properly screened. It seems that Buena Vista University, where Kyle served as an advocate, had a seriously underfunded program in place. There was no full-time staff person overseeing the work of the program, which, from the looks of its pitiful website appears to have been student-run. Instead of a rape crisis center with a staffer screening, training and managing volunteers, BVU had the director of community service—no doubt a good person with a million other things to do—acting as a faculty adviser to an independent student group.
Without an infrastructure built in to screen and monitor advocates, people like Kyle Payne can slip through the cracks.
This case is an excellent example of one of the myriad reasons a college should make the investment in full-time trained sexual assault advocates. They think that’s too expensive? How much will it cost when the school gets sued because some self-styled student “advocate” sexually assaults the person they’re counseling? How about the lost tuition from students too traumatized to continue with their schooling? The fallout from the suicide that happens when the counseling center is closed?
Seriously, you have three baseball coaches and you can’t hire one person to deal with sexual assault on campus?
Beyond that fairly obvious improvement, those with the funding to screen and monitor sexual assault advocates should establish effective screening mechanisms and spot checks to prevent weirdos like Payne from ending up sitting across from the survivors who call for help. An errant sociopath may make it through such screenings, but many disasters like this one could be prevented.
I have to admit—I’m pretty bummed about this situation. It sounds like a lot of people have been harmed by it, and the ripple effect continues. My hope is that we can take a few lessons, and make sure it never happens again.
I’m glad to see this here, especially since Payne is continuing to blog and, apparently, attend conferences as if nothing happened. THe more exposure this gets the better.
It’s just shameful that a university wouldn’t have a full time person to deal with sexual assault, and I have a feeling such a person would have dealt appropriately with Payne. I’ve read many comments about unease with the way he presented himself, and someone clued in to those kind of things would have recognized the signs.
I’m terribly sad for the victim, and for the women who put their trust in Payne as a resident adviser and rape crisis adviser.
Some great points, thanks for posting this. Yeah, it’s a systemic problem and not just in the ways that people think (i.e. media imagery of misogyny/glorified rape/etc.): as you say, where’s the funding for actual help? Where’s the attention? Oh, right, sports are more important. Well. Gee.
Thanks for writing about this. Kyle Payne and other people like him must be stopped before they have a chance to hurt people. Hopefully BVU and other universities will take this horrifying situation as a reminder to background-check all people involved in such sensitive areas as victim advocacy.
Hi. I’m trying to figure out just what kind of “rape advocacy” work Kyle Payne did, in the interests of following up on the possible institutional problems at BVU and other places. I’m wondering on what basis you say that Payne had a faculty advisor at BVU. The only name the website run by Payne supposedly for BVU has on it is Payne’s and that of Nichol Kleespies. As far as I know, she is a graduate of BVU but I can find nothing that would confirm she is a member of faculty or staff.
Hi Hysperia,
When I wrote this post, I found Nichol listed as the “director of community service” here: http://www.bvu.edu/only_at_bvu/news/detail.dot?inode=876
and the “director of student activities” here: http://www.bvu.edu/only_at_bvu/news/detail.dot?inode=358
Usually, a title like that means a staff person, particularly when there is a staff phone number attached to the name. Now that you mention it though, I suppose that doesn’t absolutely confirm her as a staff person, necessarily, though I do think she most likely was… According to a staff person I contacted at BVU, the group Kyle worked with now has a different advisor. I’ve been meaning to follow up with the new person there, and now that you’re asking I’ll be sure to do so tomorrow and give you an update.
Thanks. I don’t know why I couln’t find her. I’m still a bit confused about her role and how she was trained to oversee a group like the one Payne was involved in. I’m just concerned to think that other groups like this might be in operation.
Hey hysperia,
No luck contacting them, but I left a message today. I’ll keep you in the loop.
Kyle Payne (Remember him, feminist male blogger convicted of sexual assaulting a passed out female) has been found with child pornography on his computer. Check this out: http://www.stormlakepilottribune.com/story/1658309.html