Chelsea Pequiqnot, a senior studying social work, has served as the Athens Police Department’s Violance Against Women Act intern helping survivors of sexual assault through the court system.
One student joined the fight to advocate for survivors of sexual assault by interning with the Athens Police Department.
Chelsea Pequignot, a senior studying social work, has served as the Athens Police Department’s Violance Against Women Act (VAWA) Unit intern this academic year. She works beside Molly Burchfield, the department’s social worker, whose salary is funded by the VAWA.
Throughout most of Pequignot's time at OU, she thought she wanted to go into the development disability side of social work. After her internship experience, she believes working at a women’s shelter will mirror work she did at APD, she said.
“If I had just stuck with what I was comfortable with, I wouldn’t have known,” Pequignot said. “I would have done that for the rest of my life.”
She decided to try something new as she was going through the interview process to find an internship required for her to graduate. At one of her last interviews, a social worker told her to try something new before graduating.
Pequignot has been able to help Burchfield in the office every Tuesday and Thursday, helping sexual assault survivors navigate the criminal process as an unpaid intern. Burchfield sees about 30 to 40 cases of sexual assault each year, according to a previous Post report.
“I picked this randomly and then during my interview I actually learned a lot so I thought this might be a better place,” Pequignot said.
Her duties at APD consist of, going to domestic violence-related court hearings, siting in on interviews when survivors come into APD and drawing up protection orders when necessary.
“I like sitting in on the interviews,” Pequignot said. “It is hard for me because they’re really emotional but it definitely helps me see what they’re going through.”
Pequignot's social work class worked on mock interviews in front of the whole class on how to handle situations a social worker may see with a client.
“Even though it’s awkward and embarrassing, it helps you prepare,” Pequignot said.
She added that being familiar with the general scope of what’s going to happen is helpful in the field.
Before working at APD, Pequignot said she didn’t realize that it’s “a lot harder” to get charges and protection orders processed.
She said she now knows in order to get a criminal protection order, there has to be charges that have been put into place. Charges range from domestic violence, assault and even stalking, she said.
“Our main role is to be an advocate for victims of crime,” Burchfield said. “It could be for civil (cases) as well.”
Burchfield added that each day in the office is different. The pair could have a few scheduled clients or they could have five walk-ins during an afternoon, she said.
“There’s no set thing,” Burchfield said.
She said sometimes she and Pequignot collect more evidence for their clients cases.
“We’ll see someone through the entire process,” Burchfield said, adding that the work she and Pequiqnot do is confidential, unless a child is endangered.
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Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said he enjoys having Pequignot around the office helping Burchfield with the daily work.
“There’s a lot of work and she’s very willing, very capable,” Pyle said.
@Fair3Julia
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