2008 Woodie Awards
Anti-aggression advocate
Thompson is professor, adviser for Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates
By: Lynn Fischer
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: News
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These days, Thompson sits in his office surrounded by Sexual Aggression Peer Adovcates apparel, accessories and posters, determined to get his message out to CMU's campus.
"It is discouraging that people don't think about SAPA when they have been assaulted," Thompson said.
In addition to being an associate physical education and sport professor, Thompson is the adviser for SAPA.
While he only planned on staying at Central for a few years, Thompson has been a faculty member at CMU for 35 years. Instead, he realized he enjoyed the small environment of CMU and the benefits a Division I school offers.
"In one phone call, changes can be done immediately to benefit a student," Thompson said.
A few years ago, a 17-year-old woman was assaulted at the university. CMU was required by policy to call the parents, however, the student was not prepared to tell them. Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe changed the school's policy that day, Thompson said.
"There are not many universities that will focus their attention on a student's personal needs," Thompson said.
With every success story, however, comes a burden from the past. Thompson remembers the day he started his crusade.
It was April 12, 1973.
Thompson was a martial arts instructor teaching women self-defense at Indiana University. One of his students was raped and almost killed.
"She apologized to me because what I taught her didn't work," he said.
Thompson said he couldn't go back to saying everything he teaches in class will always work. He said he would have been traumatized if it happened to another student.
Jamie Franklin, a Breckenridge sophomore and SAPA member, said Thompson knows what he's talking about when it comes to anti-sexual aggression services.
"It's been an honor to know Steve and learn from him," he said. "He's not really a mean ogre. He's a good guy."
In 1980, Thompson began visiting prisons to talk to rapists about how they pick their victims. He said the only way you can learn how to prevent being assaulted is to know what you're coming up against.
In 1983, he became a rape expert for the Albuquerque, N.M., police department, learning more about the predators incentives and how to prevent their actions.
"Until the day I die, I will continue to investigate and work with survivors," Thompson said.
He often brings his work home with him. Thompson's wife Linda Tobias, daughter Shelly and sons Quinn and Braden have been a support system for his work.
One of Thompsons' sons, Jonathan Braden-Tobias Thompson, is a sophomore at CMU. He has been a member of SAPA for five years.
"He is the type of guy that will give you the shirt off his back and then motivate you to give the your shirt off your back," Johnathan Thompson said.
Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe said Thompson is a natural leader and respects his concern for other people.
"Steve has that ability to focus on an individual. which is most important in a survivor's life," Roscoe said. "The biggest question is what will happen when Steve leaves?"
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