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A New Way to Combat High School Sexual Harassment and Assault

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Nearly half of students in grades 7–12 report facing sexual harassment. More than 11% of all students experience rape or sexual assault. Approximately two-thirds of college students experience sexual harassment.

The first time I remember experiencing any form of sexual harassment was at my school bus stop in seventh grade. I stood waiting for the bus to come with a group of friends, chatting about upcoming tests and homework from the night before. Suddenly, an older man strolled up to me and said something that will forever be etched in my memory: “You’re pretty. I want to f*** you hard.”

I felt targeted. I felt violated. If someone hadn’t been there to tell him to get away, I fear something worse would have happened to me.

Around five years have passed since that incident, but I still think about it constantly. As a biracial (half Korean, half white) teenage girl, I often feel even more at risk, especially with the rise in AAPI hate within the past few months.

Asian American women are far too often oversexualized, painted as “exotic” and “submissive.” The shooting rampage that occurred in Atlanta in March is a prime example. Of those murdered, four women were of Korean descent, and two of Chinese heritage. The shooter, Robert Long, claimed he was motivated to act violently because of his self-proclaimed “sex addiction.” He sought to eliminate the objects of his sexual temptations: Asian women.

This sexual objectification needs to end.

Throughout my years of schooling, I have received a very limited education about sexual harassment. Consent was talked about briefly in my eighth-grade science class, and my health teacher presented a short unit on sexual violence during my freshman year. Since then, no teacher has even mentioned it. In fact, they almost seem scared to talk about what they deem to be a “touchy subject.”

But the harsh reality is that sexual violence is very real and very common. I knew something within the education system needed to change.

So, when I first heard about Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS), a nonprofit working to “proactively address the epidemic of traumatic sexual harassment impacting our nation’s students,” according to the SSAIS website, I was immediately intrigued. I joined as a volunteer and got started right away.

This past summer, SSAIS began a project called the Students Against Sexual Harassment (SASH) Club.

SASH Club aims to be a “new, national youth peer-to-peer education and prevention project targeting the problem of youth sexual harassment and assault,” according to the SASH Club website.

I have spent the last few months working on the project rollout, providing youth perspective and feedback on the ready-to-use tools and resources SASH Club plans to supply to schools, all of which are free for nonprofit educational purposes.

These resources are easily downloadable and extremely youth-friendly, enabling any student, school club, or community organization to start their own SASH Club. Covering a wide range of topics — Title IX, alcohol and date rape drugs, sextortion, and more — SASH Club tools serve to introduce youth to difficult topics, stimulate discussion, and inspire action. They can be used in group settings or even individually.

I truly believe that SASH Club can make a difference, which is why I have chosen to start one at my high school. I will be modeling my SASH Club after one started at Pine-Richland High School by SSAIS youth leader Ana Baxter, which has had great success.

Through my SASH Club, I hope to create a safe space where my peers and I can learn and grow together while working to end sexual violence in our school and community. I encourage you to do the same.

If you are interested in starting your own SASH Club, check out the SASH Club website.



More articles by Category: Violence against women
More articles by Tag: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, High school
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Cate Bikales
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