NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – “Horrific.”
That’s how the director of the Sexual Assault Center (SAC) describes the details of a teen who said she was drugged and raped after a night on Broadway.
As of Tuesday night, Metro police are still searching for Trevor Casteel, who is accused in the May 4 sexual assault, while Joseph Farmer is behind bars.
Meanwhile, Lorraine McGuire with SAC is urging establishments to take part in the nonprofit’s free Safe Bar training program as a preventative effort to make the community safer.
“It’s always horrific when something like this happens and it happens more than makes the news,” said McGuire, the VP of Community Relations at SAC.
It’s a reality that employees at the center face regularly.
“We are the only non-hospital facility in Davidson County that offers a rape kit,” she explained.
McGuire said about 50% of all sexual assaults involve alcohol.
“We don’t want alcohol to go away; we don’t want Nashville not to be the city where people want to come and have a good time, but we do want it to be a safer option,” she said.
That’s why the nonprofit offers Safe Bar, an intervention program that trains restaurant and bar employees to identify and intervene safely when you see sexual harassment or assault. Trainees are also provided resources for patrons, including signage with the crisis hotline and details of a special drink that can be ordered to alert staff if you need help.
“In this case, it sounds like somebody had the drugs. They knew what they were doing; they had a whole plan. If they walk into the bar and see there’s a Safe Bar decal on the entrance, the bathrooms have the signs, they see the drug detection coasters available, well they are probably not going to risk that place because they see this.”
The drug detection coasters test for the two most common date rape drugs, GHB and Ketamine. SAC recently began distributing fentanyl test strips as well.
“We were seeing that the common date rape drugs were also being laced with fentanyl,” McGuire said.
McGuire said the nonprofit also just launched a Safe Bar app that tracks establishments across the state that have participated in the training.
“It has our crisis line number; it has what to do if something does happen, so it’s just a really great resource in our community,” McGuire explained.
In a city where we are known to party, only about a dozen bars in Nashville have utilized the free Safe Bar program training and McGuire said only two on Lower Broadway are trained, despite a recent resolution urging bars to participate.
“There’s no reason not to do this. If it’s a free resource being offered to you that you can then offer to the people who are coming to your bar, then why wouldn’t you do it?” she asked.
As a society, McGuire said we have to take preventative action or the troubling statistics won’t change.
“Rapist are rapist and rapists rape over and over again.”
The Sexual Assault Center is open 24-7. For more information on their services or to learn more about the Safe Bar program, click here.
