Written by: Sadie Latimer | News Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Content warning: <\/strong>this article discusses stalking, sexual assault and violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Nasset, author of her memoir \u201cNow I Speak: From Stalked to Standing Up,\u201d is an activist, advocate and survivor of stalking. After publishing in 2023, she was personally invited by Western for a book club discussion, keynote speech, book signing and a storytelling workshop for survivors. The event was hosted by Abby\u2019s House, Western\u2019s resource for equity and gender justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to SPARC \u2014 the Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center \u2014 one-third of women and one-sixth of men in the US have been impacted by stalking. SPARC is a resource that guarantees advocates, educators, prosecutors and other professionals have what they need to assist victims of stalking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SPARC defines stalking as \u201ca pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person\u2019s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n January has been recognized as National Stalking Awareness Month for the last 21 years. It originated in January of 2003, when Peggy Klinke was murdered by her former partner turned stalker. Klinke\u2019s sister, Debbie Riddle, took action after the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDebbie \u2026 decided that with her grief, she was going to do something about it,\u201d Nasset said during her keynote speech. \u201cNever question the power of us when we get p\u2014-d off because Debbie, within a year (of Klinke\u2019s death), was at the US Capitol having National Stalking Awareness Month signed into law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n During Nasset\u2019s keynote speech, she delved into her history of being a survivor of sexual and gender-based violence. Then, she told the story that led her to eventually become an advocate for victims of stalking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In her late 20s, after going to school for art, Nasset got an opportunity to own an art gallery in Port Townsend, Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hosted galleries the first Saturday of every month along with the rest of the town. I was involved in my community. I was well known as a young female business owner. It was a good point in my life,\u201d said Nasset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nasset was unaware at the time, but a man who she did not know had been watching her for quite some time. His stalking and obsessive behaviors only intensified. He was even sent to jail for 364 days for misdemeanor stalking \u2014 however, that did not stop him from continuing to stalk Nasset after his release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After several years, a prosecutor was able to build another case against Nasset\u2019s stalker, except this time it was for aggravated felony stalking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe was sentenced to ten years, which at the time was the longest (stalking) sentence in our country’s history,\u201d Nasset said, \u201cand that really, for me, was a huge call to action to say, \u2018I don’t want to be the exception\u2026 This needs to start to be the standard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years, Nasset has worked with agencies at the state and federal level to help victims of stalking and gender-based violence. She is a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, serves on multiple advisory councils, is a board member of End Violence Against Women International and is the Vice President of the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce. She also hosts a podcast called \u201cThe Mend.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u200b\u200b(Identifying) stalking is really challenging because so often it’s looking at things that are not criminalized and understanding that it’s a criminal behavior,\u201d Nasset said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many signs a person is being stalked, including hypervigilance, a lack of involvement, depression, skipping events, being distracted easily and being afraid to leave their home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot everyone who’s experiencing or showing these things is necessarily a victim of stalking or other forms of gender-based violence, but they might be,\u201d Nasset said. According to Nasset, it\u2019s important to reach out to loved ones who are showing these warning signs and, most importantly, believe victims and survivors when they open up about their experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo often we are told to be silent about these things. And when we are silenced by them, we carry that blame with us,\u201d Nasset said. \u201cVictims and survivors stay silent, because (if we report), we’re going to be put back through that, we’re going to be questioned, we’re going to be disbelieved\u2026 And so, so often it feels like, \u2018why even stand up and say anything?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nasset knows that even one survivor standing up, sharing their story and trying to get justice can not only help them, but help other victims as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we can respond to stalking, we could potentially save a life,\u201d Nasset said after sharing a statistic about the strong correlation between stalking and sexual violence. \u201cAnd I’ll be honest with you, I’m one that was saved, because I shouldn’t be here. And so that’s why I take this so seriously, is to say, \u2018if you pay attention to us, we can save lives.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to SPARC, one out of ten undergraduate women and one out of 33 undergraduate men are stalked on college campuses. Abby\u2019s House is Western\u2019s resource for victims of stalking, providing confidential advocates and assistance finding and navigating other resources. They are located in room 106 of the Werner University Center and can be reached by email at abbyshouse@wou.edu<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When signing books after her keynote speech, Nasset wrote the phrase that should be the main takeaway from her work: \u201cKeep standing up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by: Sadie Latimer | News Editor Content warning: this article discusses stalking, sexual assault and violence Anna Nasset, author of her memoir \u201cNow I Speak: From Stalked to Standing Up,\u201d is an activist, advocate and survivor of stalking. After publishing in 2023, she was personally invited by Western for a book club discussion, keynote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5599,1535,5590,5598,5587,5600,5602,5589,1819,5605,5604,5594,5601,5603,5593,5588,5586,5592,5595,422,5597,5585,5596,5591,1582,2622,684],"class_list":["post-22141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-the-mend-podcast","tag-abbys-house-2","tag-activist","tag-aggravated-felony-stalking","tag-anna-nasset","tag-association-of-threat-assessment-professionals","tag-being-distracted-easily","tag-debbie-riddle","tag-depression","tag-end-violence-against-women-international","tag-hypervigilance","tag-keynote-speech","tag-lack-of-involvement","tag-mad-river-valley-chamber-of-commerce","tag-memoir","tag-national-stalking-awareness-month","tag-obsessive-behaviors","tag-peggy-klinke","tag-port-townsend","tag-resources","tag-skipping-events","tag-sparc","tag-stalking-advocate","tag-stalking-survivor","tag-washington","tag-werner-university-center","tag-western"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22146,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22141\/revisions\/22146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}