In high school I have been taught that right triangles have one right angle, and the hypotenuse is the side that is opposite that angle, I was also taught that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide damages human health. Although all this information may be useful for me in the future, but what I didn’t learn is how much at risk I am to be raped when I go to college next year. Approximately 100,000 women will be raped this school year alone, rape occurs every 21 hours on a college campus. How come high school didn’t teach me about this?

 

 

            By the time we educate men, and woman about rape it becomes too late. 44% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 18. As seniors approach college, they’re faced with more difficulties than just the occasional test, or failure to fit in. Rape is becoming a nationwide issue, and 94 colleges are being investigated for it.  We all assume college campuses are a safe environment but they’re not always. I would be fearful for my child, rape isn’t preventable, but rape education can be the difference between being raped, and not reporting it, and being raped and reporting it.

 

Senator Claire Mccaskill of Missouri and Tim Kaine of Virginia introduced The Teach Safe Relationships Act of 2015 last month. The act requires public  secondary schools to teach about “safe relationship behavior”, which will be aimed at preventing sexual assault, domestic violence, and dating violence.  Under current federal law, health and sex classes don’t include sexual assault prevention.

Kaine told the Huffington Post,” With the alarming statistics on the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses and in communities across the country, secondary schools should play a role in promoting safe relationship behavior and teaching students about sexual assault and dating violence,"

 

 At Boys Latin, they recently started a program with the Yeardley Love Foundation. It’s called Team One Love, it teaches students about relationship violence, and healthy relationships. If schools are teaching students about issues like relationship violence, I don’t see why we can’t teach students about rape, this information could save a life, or ease a burden. Speakers to educate about sexual assault are free.

 

Andrea Pino, a former student at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill was a freshman on March 2012 when she was raped at a party, a sophomore took her to a bathroom and preceded to slam her on the floor tiles, and rape her, she was a virgin.  She remembers thinking, “You just stay there, and hope you don’t die.” Another freshman at the time was raped before fall classes even begun, she recalls reporting it to a college administrator, and the response was, “think of it as football game: If you look back, would you have done it differently”.

 

When I was in fifth grade, they separated boys and girls, and taught them both separately about hygiene and puberty. How come they don’t educate us like that anymore?  We are taught about sex, but not taught about sex without consent, which is a huge problem in relationships.

Schools should integrate rape education into the health curriculum or hold assemblies on rape education. , it should teach about the definition of rape, rape cases, ways to prevent it, (watch your drink, go to parties with friends, etc), and what to do when you’re raped.  The biggest issue is rape victims will immediately go shower because they want to wash themselves of the shame they feel, but when you shower, you wash away evidence; the United States currently has over 400,000 untested rape kits. Another lesson that needs to be taught is convincing rape victims that it isn’t their fault, and they shouldn’t feel ashamed, and speak to someone if they’re raped. Most importantly, I feel like there should be a workshop for boys, to teach them about healthy relationships, and prevent them from becoming a rapist, some boys believe they are entitled to woman they’re in a relationship with.  I understand not everyone will attend a college, but information about rape will also be helpful in the work environment

 

I have started this petition because I want other seniors to learn information about rape that we have been depraved of, I want to inform them about the misconceptions people have about rape. I have learned algebra, geometry, and Literature, but I have yet to be taught about how I can avoid being a victim of rape in college.