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Accusations slam SAPAC

Accusations of breeched confi-dentialities and racism loom over the Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness Center's 10th anniversary this month.

SAPAC, a University-funded organization that offers counseling to survivors of sexual assault, is facing a work stoppage by a faction of its Peer Educators following the dismissal of Peer Education co-coordinator Janelle White last month. In an e-mail message sent to SAPAC volunteers Feb. 2, seven PEs criticized the organization's motives and its handling of the dismissal.

"I very much support their work stoppage because I think it's evidence of some very serious problems within SAPAC," said Ain Boone, a SAPAC volunteer not taking part in the protest.

The volunteers also claim SAPAC director Debi Cain breeched the confidentiality of a survivor associated with SAPAC during a meeting with five members inquiring about the dismissal. The organization's guidelines pledge client confidentiality.

Cain said she "is not at liberty to discuss" the specific allegations.

"I am not aware of any situations where I have knowingly violated a client's confidentiality, and I don't believe even unknowingly violated," she said.

Jenn Rumisek, a protesting PE, said that although inconsistencies in the announcement of White's dismissal sparked the volunteers' concern, the protestors have individual reasons for supporting the work stoppage.

"That was just the beginning of questioning the organization," Rumisek said. "When I found out about the confidentiality -- that was just the last straw."

A "vast majority of the Peer Educators," as well as several crisis-line volunteers, have been meeting every week to update volunteers on the situation and discuss plans of action, said David Freund, a protesting PE. Their association is independent from White, Boone said.

Mona Kumar, a protesting PE, said protestors have suggested several options, including starting an alternate peer education program, inviting an ouside expert to evaluate SAPAC's administration and efficiency, and removing Cain from the program.

"SAPAC isn't being true to its mission right now and the volunteers are trying to reach out to marginalized communities," Kumar said. "The firing of Janelle White seems to me to be really indicative of inconsistencies."

Breeches of confidentiality

Despite specific terms in SAPAC's mission statement and guidelines, the promise of client confidentiality has been broken more than once, several volunteers asserted.

"There's been a couple of disclosures," Freund said, "both by staff members."

"I can't even trust our own confidentialities," Kumar said.

Carmen Crosby, a protesting PE, said that during a meeting with Cain and four other SAPAC members on Jan. 25, Cain identified a survivor and Crosby said she told Cain, "`I'm not aware that all of the people in this room were aware of (this individual's position).'"

Kumar said it is potentially damaging "to have the director of an organization on the one hand disclose something about another survivor and when her volunteers challenge that, have her response be, `Well, didn't you know that?'"

Pattrice Maurer, a source close to White, said she is critical of Cain's leadership in the organization and that a reassessment of the internal structure of SAPAC is necessary.

"When something as basic as client confidentiality breaks down, that's pretty indicative of that," she said.

LSA Rep. Olga Savic said investigation of the allegations is important in order for SAPAC to "continue to do good work."

"An investigation of what has been going on is really important because even rumors of breeches of confidentiality damage SAPAC's reputation and impair its ability to provide services to women in the community," Savic said.

Joyce Wright, training and education coordinator, asserted that the organization had not received public complaints about confidentiality during her two-year tenure at SAPAC.

"By SAPAC's policy, and in fact by law," Cain said, "we are obligated to provide confidentiality to our clients."

"Based on my knowledge of SAPAC, confidentiality is extremely important," said University spokesperson Lisa Baker. "( I don't believe that) SAPAC would ever knowingly violate anyone's confidentiality."

Baker said she can not comment on the specific accusations.

Mauer said the survivor allegedly identified by Cain received services from a SAPAC counselor while Cain was director.

"I have spoken with the counselor who handled the case and the intake forms of the person were turned over to Debi ... so she would know `here are the people whose confidentiality I have to protect,'" Mauer said.

"This kind of misuse of power and priviledge ... is frustrating and frightening in an organization that exists to dismantle these things," Crosby said.

Janelle White's dismissal

Mauer said SAPAC listed three reasons for White's dismissal: White was once overheard saying she didn't like attending staff meetings; she asked her supervisor, Emi Nakatazato, if she had mispoken at a staff meeting after receiving a "funny" look from Nakatazato's supervisor; and accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at a national conference without consulting the SAPAC staff.

In September, Cain and Wright met with White to discuss their concerns about her job. Their concerns were detailed in a memo to White two days later.

"They were making demands on what she could or couldn't say, who she could or couldn't talk to," Mauer said.

Mauer said White used the memo to start an affirmative action complaint file with the University.

"I am upset and I am contemplating taking legal action," White said. "I hope I will not have to take that step ... Each day that the wrong goes uncorrected, more damage is done."

Several volunteers raised concerns about how SAPAC notified the staff of White's dismissal.

"The way this dismissal was announced to us, (we were) not only not given a straight answer for her dismissal but that we found out some things we were originally told were erronneous," Freund said.

Freund said staff members were originally told that White had broken terms of a contract, but later discovered that the terms were listed only in the memo, not in a signed contract.

Kumar asserted that regardless of the reasons SAPAC administrators cited for White's dismissal, White's color and sexual preference had direct corollation to the action. White is an African American and a member of the lesbian/bisexual community.

"Janelle was a constant reminder that we weren't meeting the needs of those certain populations," Kumar said.

"What I feel is the real cause for dismissal is she's adamantly encouraging change within the organization which makes the rest of the organization uncomfortable, because they're not easy changes to make," Kumar said.

Minority relations

Mauer said members of the black community, as well as members of the lesbian/gay/bisexual community have consistently felt alienated from the organization.

"SAPAC has a history of not addressing the concerns of different poplulations of color," Crosby said. She said, however, that this is a concern for many organizations on and off campus.

Crosby said a meeting with Cain revealed the organization's poor understanding of minorities.

"I pointed out that Janelle was the only black woman who was a representative of the lesbian/gay/bisexual community working there, and Debi immediately started talking about her behavior, which is kind of code word for `how to control (women of color),'" Crosby said.

The number of female minority survivors consulting SAPAC is an indication that the organization does not alienate the general minority population, Cain said.

"What's important to us is that we want to serve the entire University of Michigan community," she said.

Members of the lesbian/gay/bisexual community communicated their concerns to SAPAC at a program sponsored by the organization and the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Programming Office last night.

"We went to them telling them that, basically, SAPAC's not really that approachable," said Ryan LaLonde, a member of the Michigan Student Assembly's new lesbian/gay/bisexual taskforce and the Queer Unity Project planning team.

LaLonde said participants stressed that domestic violence occurs in homosexual, as well as heterosexual, relationships.

"It's very difficult to turn to SAPAC when they're not suited for that -- or they don't know how to handle that situation," he said.

SAPAC representatives were receptive to suggestions to increase awareness and approachability, LaLonde said.

"I don't think it's a big mystery or a big secret that SAPAC isn't reaching as many people as it can," Boone said. "This should be a notice that students need to start evaluating the services that they are paying for -- that they are receiving."