“It won’t happen to me.”

That is exactly what Susan Cash told herself days before she was kidnapped at gunpoint, raped repeatedly, shot and left for dead.

Although her story isn’t typical of most rape cases, she is a living example that most women are not as prepared as they think when it comes to sexual assault.

Kathryn Keith Sims, executive director of Safe Campuses Now, invited Cash to speak at the Girls Night Out program on Tuesday.

If the gruesome account wasn’t enough to make students think twice about safety, Safe Campuses Now had pamphlets to remind them how easy it is to become a statistic.

“We’re here to talk about stuff that’s not normally talked about,” Sims said in her opening announcement. “It’s not exactly dinner table conversation.”

On the night of her attack – July 1, 1985 – Cash, then a 19-year-old cosmetology student, was talking to her sister on a pay phone one block from her apartment in Savannah, Ga., when she felt the muzzle of a gun barrel against her head. Her brain went numb and for the next two hours, “I was his,” she said.

He forced her under an abandoned house, made her undress, and shot her in the stomach. While repeatedly raping, sodomizing and beating her, he whispered every lewd thing he planned to do to her body. He finally left her, covered in dirt and blood and totally nude.

The bullet was lodged a quarter of an inch from her spine. She underwent three surgeries and was in the hospital for a month, which she said seemed small compared to the long-term effects the incident had on her family. She said she would never be the same.

To this day, no one is certain of the identity of Cash’s assailant and she believes she is one of many victims. Now, she said, she tells her story to encourage women to think about risk reduction and helps others deal with their tragedy.

Accompanying Cash at the event was a panel of local experts to answer questions.

Carol Ann Schmitt, associate director of Project Safe, said most sexual assailants are by someone the victim knows and trusts. She warned students to recognize the warning signs of a dangerous relationship – quick involvement and jealous, isolating and controlling behavior.

Amelia Rushton, director of the Victim Witness Program at the solicitor general’s office, said alcohol is the No. 1 drug involved in assault-related cases, and students are constantly surrounded by it.

Michelle Dickens, victim’s assistance at the district attorney’s office, said victims shouldn’t throw away any evidence.

“The first inclination is to clean yourself up, but keeping evidence is better than trying to remember his face,” Dickens said. She also said: try not to use the bathroom, shower or brush your teeth. Keep underwear, bed sheets and any other clothing. If you suspect drugs were involved, pee in a cup to take to the hospital as drugs metabolize quickly through the body.

Their advice seemed to resonate with the crowd of about 50 female students.

Callie McConnell, a freshman from Lawrenceville, said she was affected by the speech.

“It made me think about what I would be willing to do if something like that happened. I started to think about the extremes I would go to,” McConnell said.

Therysa King, a freshman from Atlanta, said she already felt prepared from taking self-defense classes and other seminars, but she can always learn more.

“This was good because it brings it to light. If you don’t think about it, you won’t plan for it,” King said.