Death sparks awareness

As part of the Domestic Violence Awareness week, Campus Outreach Services invited a speaker to discuss his daughter's death due to domestic violence Wednesday.Tom Santoro, a retired fireman of Chicago, was invited to speak about domestic violence by Katie Koestner, a representative of Campus Outreach Services.

Santoro said he has visited more than 250,000 high schools and colleges in 12 years to help raise the awareness of domestic violence.

He said he helps spread awareness because his daughter was a dating violence homicide victim.

Santoro opened his presentation by reading a letter sent to him by a girl who was experiencing domestic abuse.

In the letter, Santoro read the couple had been dating for several months.

The girl described how sweet and genuine her boyfriend was in the beginning.

However, he read between the fourth and fifth months, the boyfriend became jealous, made her cry and was constantly calling. In those situations, Santoro said, "The victim blocks out all the bad things and only remembers the good things."

Santoro revealed his personal story toward the end of the presentation.

Santoro's story began, "My daughter Lisa was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Lisa's death was premeditated. She was stalked. He followed her around. She was beat with a baseball bat. My son was 16 when his sister died." Santoro said, "Lisa's killer is serving 75 years in prison."

Santoro said he has not spoken to Lisa's murderer. On the day of the murder, Santoro said Lisa's ex-boyfriend called his step-dad and confessed his crime, and he was reported to the police.

Santoro said he went to support groups to help him cope with the lost of his daughter who passed away in 1994. He said she would have been going to college the following year. He also spent a lot of time writing letters addressed to his daughter to express his feelings. He read one of the letters in his presentation saying how much he missed her. Santoro also showed a video slide show highlighting the memories of his daughter Lisa Marie Santoro.

Santoro said his mission now is "to end dating violence," in an honor of his daughter's life.

Sara Peters, the Women's Center Director said the Women's Center participates in the "Green Dot" Campaign, which is a violence against women awareness program.

She said, "It creates awareness on campus for domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and stalking." She said it promotes a culture, which does not tolerate that behavior on campus.

Both Santoro and Peters agreed most people are reluctant to openly talk about abuse. Peters said, "The more we talk about it, the more comfortable victims will be to come forward and discuss what is happening."

She said, "The more we talk about it and make it clear it's intolerable, hopefully perpetrators will get help."

Even though the majority of victims of domestic abuse are girls, it still affects both men and women according to Santoro.

Arisa Spencer, a freshman from Knoxville, said we live in a society where verbal abuse is not taken as seriously as physical abuse.

She said, "We're taught that words are just words, not realizing that they can influence people in a negative way." Spencer said, "Violence comes in different forms and everyone should be aware of those forms and know the signs and learn how they can help to stop it.