Confronting a Growing Epidemic

Minnie Leaman, A & E Editor

Sexual assault is an incredibly rampant and dangerous disease that is quickly spreading. For those of us venturing off to college soon it is a real concern. It is up to communities like ours to educate our youth in hopes of curing the disease.

On Friday 11/18 CAKE, GLI and POV joined together to create a town hall that educated our community on the growing issue.

Call me biased, but I think they did a great job.

The town hall included a New Jew Alumni speaker who was sexually assaulted, a male testimony read by junior Cameron Rose, and a video including excerpts from the testimony of the Stanford Rape Case victim.

Our community was so incredibly respectful during this immensely heavy topic. While Elizabeth, the alumni speaker, was talking, you could literally hear a pin drop. Even after the town hall ended, many people went up to Elizabeth to praise her bravery.

As movies such as The Hunting Ground and songs such as “Till it Happens to You” have taught us, this problem needs to be stopped, and the only way to put an end to it is to educate people on the issue.

If we can get schools outside of our community to educate their students not on just how not to be sexually assaulted, but why not to sexually assault, we can come together and end the issue.

We have to educate teenagers on how to respect everyone and what it means to actively consent.

Once teens have this knowledge in their memory banks, it could make the next perpetrator stop and think about what they are about to do before they actually do it.