The CCD has stated that approximately 10% of high schoolers reported having unwanted physical or sexual contact in the last 12 months (Cassada). This number reflects a huge number of students, 100 students in a school of 1,000, 200 students in a school of 2,000. According to another survey by the CDC, 23% of females and 14% of males who experienced abuse by a partner experienced it between the ages of 11 and 17. These numbers are absolutely staggering. According to information published by Dallastown Area School District, in just our high school there were 1,906 students in 2017, in the middle school there were another 1,049. That gives a total of 2,955 students in 2017. This means that (when applying the 10% mentioned reported by the CDC) as many as 295 students in Dallastown could have been a victim of unwanted sexual contact in 2017. But how do we stop this endless cycle of sexual assault? Teenagers need to be more informed about sexual assault, abusive relationships and rape so that they know how to protect themselves and others before they are placed in a compromising situation.
The first thing that must be discussed is abusive relationships. One of the most prominent signs of an abusive relationship is controlling behaviors. Controlling behaviors are – but not limited to – cutting the victim off from contacting friends or family, making them feel like everything is their fault, or trying to control what you say, do, or wear. The paramount step for victims in an abusive relationship is recovery. A tool developed by Ph.D. Aronson Fontes, uses the word RECOVERY as an acronym (Fontes 1). RECOVERY begins with R, reclaiming activities and passions that the abuser prevented the victim from doing. Next is E, embody; eat well, exercise, take care of hygiene. Following embody is C, connect. Reconnect with friends and family that the victim may have been prevented from contacting, or not been able to see at all while they were in a relationship with their abuser, and so on through the acronym. During this recovery process, it is very important for the victim to learn several things. First, it is natural to feel fear and regret when first recovering from an abusive relationship, whether it was verbal, sexual, mental, or physical. Also, it is important to learn that recovery doesn’t happen overnight. Recovery may take longer or shorter for each victim, but no one recovers instantly. Now, let’s discover what abusive relationships and sexual assault really are.
First, the definition of adolescence needs to be established. But, this is already a challenge in our medical practices. The definition of adolescence varies – most often even from county to county – in the United States (Sacks). Because of this, it’s very difficult to asses and treat adolescent trauma because of this confusion. The most general definition of adolescence, as established as the World Health Organization, is a person in between the ages of 10 and 19. Most doctors treat adolescents based on a combination of the doctor’s assessment of their physical and mental maturity. Another important thing to note, is that the brain does not reach full mental or emotional maturity until the early twenties, so adolescents get easily frustrated because there is an onset of hormones, but the brain isn’t quite ready to process them (Oswalt). But how does this relate to sexual assault? In the case of sexual assault, female adolescents are more likely to be assaulted than males. And, regardless of gender, adolescents with a mental or physical disability have an overall higher likelihood to be sexually assaulted (Kaufman 463). Also, according to the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey there were 176,540 reported rapes and sexual assaults of females 12 and older, and 15,130 reports of rape and sexual assault of males. So, how are adolescents and adults trying to solve this problem?
The #MeToo Movement is a hashtag that tells stories of survivors of sexual assault. The hashtag became popular in 2017, when thousands and thousands of people started telling their stories of survival, and others showing their support for survivors. Even celebrities began tweeting the hashtag, some just sharing a blank tweet with the #MeToo filling the blank space of the tweet. Very quickly, teens started to react and share their stories. A group of teenage girls from a high school in Lexington, Massachusetts reported that after reading many tweets under #MeToo, that the stories that were being told were “pretty much [their] reality” (Lu). The movement was created mostly to inform “…adult perpetrators, children and adolescents who engage in sexual harassment, bullying and abuse…” that those acts can leave lasting mental, and sometimes physical, scars. The movement gained national attention, being reported about on popular news channels and websites until almost everyone had heard about it. But as any social movement grows, it gets backlash – the #MeToo movement was no different. As the movement became more and more popular, males began to get severely punished for any relating crimes that they had done. Especially public figures like actors, singers, and producers because the reports that people previously hadn’t believed were now supported. As the movement seemed to be headed towards more of an anti-male perspective, some feminists urged caution (Donegan). Others insisted to push on and push hard. Therefore, this solution failed because while it is important for victims to share their stories, there was no education. The movement quickly moved away from educating young people to being very accusatory. No one was really taught how to avoid unhealthy relationships or how to get out of a situation that could be harmful. And that is what the root of the problem is; no one learns about what sexual assault really is. Prevention education is not taught to young people. That is the solution we need.
The solution that we need for adolescent sexual assault is prevention education. Prevention education is learning on how to spot an abusive relationship, how to get out of an abusive relationship, what sexual assault is, and how to keep yourself as aware as possible to try to avoid sexual assault. Anita Torres, a school-based therapist employed by Pennsylvania Behavioral Comprehensive Services said, “Prevention education is important for both males and females.” When asked why she thought prevention education wasn’t already being implemented into school systems she replied, “I think there is a lack of awareness of the seriousness [of sexual assault and rape], and programs are there that would go into the schools that would help educate the students.” Ms. Torres also specifically mentioned a program from Access York called the Victims Assistance Program that regularly offers education on what an abusive relationship is, and what signs of an abusive relationship are. So, if it has been established that prevention education is the solution, how and when should the students receive it? From their parents? School officials? A guidance counselor? The answer is very simple. Prevention education should begin when students are young. Before social media has made its dangerous impact on their impressionable minds. Because the sad truth is, abusive relationships are often romanticized. Once kids become teenagers, having a significant other who gets jealous and possessive is attractive, or having a significant other who says things like, “you’re mind and no one else’s” is appealing. Both of those things are signs of an unhealthy relationship. Granted, the topic does need to be discussed very gently and cautiously because of the student’s young age, but if in fifth grade students are learning what male and female genitalia look like and how they function regardless of the student’s gender, don’t you think that those same students at that same age should be taught about consent? The dangers of unprotected or nonconsensual sex? Or when students learn about drugs in sixth grade, shouldn’t they be told that in 40% of adolescent sexual assaults or rapes that drugs or alcohol is used to impar the victim (Kaufman 463)? This is why the topic of sexual assault and rape needs to be taught to young students. When asked why she thought prevention education should be taught to young students she said, “I have seen abusive relationships at even the middle school level.” These students need to be taught what is healthy before they have to learn from first hand experience.
Sexual assault, abusive relationships and rape are very difficult topics to discuss. They are the elephant in the room when it comes to health education because somehow, they are both too personal and too obscure to educate students on what they are, and how to prevent them. But, with statistics like the ones mentioned within this paper the facts are undeniable; something must be done before more adolescents are placed in the situation where they have no knowledge on how to protect themselves during a traumatic event like sexual assault, an abusive relationship, or rape. No one wants a teenager to become the victim, but no one is helping these teens either. It is time to accept our responsibilities as a community, as a school, and as human beings, and step up, speak up, and educate children and teens on sexual assault, abusive relationships, and rape.
Works Cited
- Bouchillon, Kerris. Personal interview. 25 October 2018.
- Cassada Lohmann, Raychelle. ‘Abusive Teen Dating Relationships.’ Psychology Today, 31 August 2017, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/teen-angst/201708/abusive-teen-dating-relationships. Accessed 24 October 2018.
- Crawford-Jakubiak, E. James, Alderman M. Elizabeth, and Leventhal M. John. ‘Care of the Adolescent After an Acute Sexual Assault.’ American Academy of Pediatrics., vol. 139, number 3, March 2017. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/02/23/peds.2016-4243. Accessed 9 October 2018.
- Dallastown Area School District. 2017 Annual Report – Student Enrollment. Dallastown Area School District, 2017. Accessed 28 October 2018.
- Donegan, Moria. ‘How #MeToo revealed the central rift within feminism today.’ The Guardian, 11 May 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/11/how-metoo-revealed-the-central-rift-within-feminism-social-individualist. Accessed 28 October 2018.
- Frances McClelland Institute Children, Youth, and Families. Addressing Teen Sexual Violence Through Prevention Education. The University of Arizona, 2010.
- Kaufman, Miriam. ‘Care of the Adolescent Sexual Assault Victim.’ American Academy of Pediatrics., vol. 122, issue 2, August 2008, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/2/462. Accessed 26 September 2018.
- Lu, Wendy. ‘What the #MeToo Movement Means to Teenagers.’ The New York Times, 12 October 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/well/family/metoo-me-too-teenagers-teens-adolescents-high-school.html. Accessed 16 October 2018.
- Mollen, CJ. ‘Acute Sexual Assault: a Review.’ Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2012, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22668668. Accessed 26 September 2018.
- Oswalt, Angela. ‘Mental/Emotional/Social Changes Through Puberty.’ MentalHelp.net, An American Addiction Centers Resource. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/mental-emotional-social-changes-through-puberty/. Accessed 28 October 2018.
- Sacks, Diane. “Age Limits and Adolescents.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2003, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2794325/. Accessed 25 September 2018.
- Torres, Anita. Personal interview. 23 October 2018.
