{"id":22460,"date":"2025-04-30T23:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T23:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-offices-recognize-worldwide-denim-day-movement\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:14:09","slug":"montezuma-county-offices-recognize-worldwide-denim-day-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-offices-recognize-worldwide-denim-day-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County offices recognize worldwide Denim Day movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A multidisciplinary team made up of members from Four Corners Child Advocacy Center, Montezuma County Child Protective Services, Cortez Police Department, Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office and providers with Axis Health System and Southwest Health System. (Sylvia Liska\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Since 2013, on the last Wednesday in April, Coloradans have opted to wear jeans in recognition of a worldwide movement called Denim Day.<\/p>\n

In exchange for wearing jeans on this day, participants are asked to donate<\/a> $5 to the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault<\/a> to support their work in preventing sexual violence.<\/p>\n

\"The
The 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office officials participating in worldwide Denim Day. Back row (left to right): Amanda Schuster, Mallory Morgan, Diane Fox-Spratlen, Nina Dattola, Paulette Gilliland, Cassie Robinson, Brenda Wright, Ashley Klumker, Clarisa Osborn, Sylvia Liska. Bottom row (left to right): Rocio Roman, Justin Pierce, Steve Brunk, Jeremy Reed, Caroline Davenport. (Sylvia Liska\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

You may be wondering \u2013 why jeans?<\/p>\n

It all dates back to 1999, when Italian women protested a Supreme Court verdict by wearing jeans.<\/p>\n

Years prior, a 45-year-old driving instructor was accused \u2013 and eventually convicted \u2013 of brutally raping a young woman during a driving lesson, according to Colorado Denim Day\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe took her to an isolated road, pulled her from the vehicle and forcefully sexually assaulted her,\u201d said Sylvia Liska, a victim witness specialist at the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, who participates in the movement.<\/p>\n

After 34 months in prison, he appealed the sentence, and it went all the way to the Italian Supreme Court, where the \u201cChief Judge released a statement arguing that because the victim wore tight jeans, he assumed that she must have helped her perpetrator remove her jeans and, therefore, consented,\u201d the Denim Days website reads.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when and why women protested by wearing jeans.<\/p>\n

The 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office started participating around 2013, the same year the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault started, too, said Clarisa Osborn, the DA\u2019s office manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to continue to raise awareness and dispel myths around rape culture and victim blaming,\u201d Osborn said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to continue educating the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially jurors in trial cases, Osborn said, \u201cto help them understand that sexual assault isn\u2019t just a dispute behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liska underscored how \u201cit\u2019s incredible it\u2019s come all the way out here,\u201d and how the office hopes they\u2019re raising awareness this final Wednesday in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DA\u2019s Office, Police Department, Sheriff\u2019s Office and others participated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,76],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77723,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22460\/revisions\/77723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22460"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}