sexual assault

A new Illinois law will require hospitals to ensure that sexual assault victims receive timely treatment from someone trained to examine them.

Right now in Illinois, fewer than 200 nurses have completed training in how to treat sexual assault victims, and only 20 are certified in pediatrics.

A new report from the University of Illinois finds the vast majority of nurses in Illinois experience violence on the job. 

The survey on workplace violence was sent to members of the Illinois Nurses Association, which has more than 2,000 members in various healthcare settings.

A new amendment to proposed Illinois legislation would require hospitals to train nurses in sexual assault care by 2021.

A previous draft of the proposal gave hospitals until 2023 to have a specially trained medical provider present within 90 minutes of a sexual assault patient's arrival, The Chicago Tribune reported .

About 100 people are expected to participate in this year’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event Saturday in DeKalb. About a quarter of that number will be men walking that mile in high heels.

Registration is up from last year’s event. That’s according to Kendal Baker – she is a spokeswoman for Safe Passage, which is a domestic violence agency and rape crisis center in DeKalb County.

Baker says the main purpose of the nationwide event is to continue to bring awareness to sexual assault and domestic violence, especially since this month is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Lawmakers advanced a measure Tuesday that would require Illinois hospitals to have nurses on staff who can provide specialized care to victims of sexual assault, including children.

The measure would require Illinois hospitals to have Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE), who can treat and examine victims, on their staff within five years.

The Illinois Attorney General's Office is working with state lawmakers to draft legislation that would require hospitals to have a specially trained medical provider available to examine a sexual assault victim.

Of the more than 196,000 registered nurses in Illinois, only 32 are certified by the International Association of Forensic Nurses to work with adult sexual assault patients, the Chicago Tribune reported. A dozen of the sexual assault nurse examiners are certified to treat children.

An Illinois Congresswoman helped unveil a new bill this week that would prohibit lawmakers from using taxpayer dollars to pay for sexual harassment and assault settlements.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, says she was among co-sponsors of the bill to help bring transparency to harassment-claim payouts under the Congressional Accountability Act.

Bustos says her office initially sent out a statement about it because of similar allegations coming to light across the country lately.

New bylaws from the University of Illinois fraternities' governing board will require all chapters to train their members on how to intervene to prevent sexual assault.

The change from the university's student-run Interfraternity Council requires all 42 campus fraternities to teach every second-year member about “bystander intervention" in addition to the two sexual-assault-prevention programs already mandated for all students on campus, the News-Gazette reports.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan testified in support of Senate Bill 189.  It would eliminate the statute of limitations for child abuse and assault crimes. 

She cited the case of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who was convicted in a hush-money scheme related to several boys he admitted to molesting while a high school wrestling coach.   Madigan said Hastert inflicted "unbelievable pain" on the youth he molested at the school, and only got a "slap on the wrist."  

A DeKalb County jury found 28-year-old Andrew Rifkin not guilty of sexually assaulting a Northern Illinois University freshman student in 2011, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The former NIU police officer was accused of assaulting the student during a consensual sexual encounter. 

A former Sycamore resident who abducted and raped an NIU student in 2001 at gunpoint is asking a judge to reconsider a decision that changed his jail sentence.

Todd S. Allgood, 48, forced the student to drive to his Sycamore trailer, where the attack took place.  

The original jury trial resulted in a 55-year prison sentence, but the Illinois Second District Appellate Court ruled last year that part of that sentence  violated state law.  Allgood's prison term was reduced to 31 years earlier this month.  

Vice President Joe Biden told students on the University of Illinois Urbana campus Thursday that preventing sexual assault is a shared responsibility.

Biden used an emotional, almost evangelical tone to urge about 1,500 students to "show courage" and “be the man you were raised to be.”

"By the way gentlemen, silence is a form of approval. Inaction is a form of cowardice," he said. "Speaking up takes courage." 

The crowd cheered for the Vice President in the gym of one of the campus' recreation centers.

Biden voiced anger at those who commit sexual assault.

Northern Illinois University is moving forward on a sweeping plan to deal with sexual assault on campus.

The DeKalb County State's Attorney lashed out at a judge Thursday, after a Seattle man was acquitted of rape charges.