At Westlake High School, rape culture often goes unspoken. However, it is not rare for boys to verbalize their misogyny.
Recently, girls have spoken out on pre-established rapists. There were many things we could have done both as peers and as a community to prevent this cruel violence from ever occurring in the first place. But that was not ever our priority. The culture of acceptance, the office, and the law have failed our school.

We need to implement better punishment for anyone showing signs of a potential rapist.

Namely, social media accounts are disregarded. Boys will be boys! @_westlakefightagaintsa (sic) is a spam account mocking this entire situation. They made a video claiming to have footage of the rape itself, and an audio played of a girl screaming in terror. This is unacceptable. They must be found out and punished accordingly.
@rapeybuttball. It's in the name. They have posted extremely graphic and disturbing comments on Westlake High School students' posts, threatening and degrading them.
Tommy Ballas was known to be suspicious for years. He was only punished/questioned after he sent unsolicited images to an underage student. In the meantime, he was surrounded by teens everyday, many of whom were well aware of the allegations and had informed the office on multiple occasions.

We demand an investigation on any and all accusations made in terms of sexual assault or harassment. These cases must be treated with respect and seriousness.

Nip it in the bud. We can change this. We must act now before anyone else becomes a victim.