SSAIS raises awareness of the detrimental effects on students of DeVos Title IX guidance rescission
In a strongly worded letter to Department of Education Secretary Betsy Devos, the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE) opposed “any effort by this administration to repeal, replace, or modify any of Title IX’s regulations or guidance documents” that were open for public comment.
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS.org), one of 30 national NCWGE member organizations, is spearheading awareness of the potential negative effects on K-12 students of rescinding Title IX-related guidance and any weakening of the Department’s oversight and enforcement role.
The NCWGE is a national nonprofit that educates the public about issues concerning equal rights for women and girls in education. SSAIS contributed to the recent NCWGE publication Title IX at 45: Advancing Opportunity through Equity in Education.
#MeTooK12 Campaign
Combating Rampant Sexual Harassment and Assault
by Esther Warkov, Executive Director, SSAIS
#MeTooK12 is a social media hashtag created by the national nonprofit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS.org). The campaign encourages victims of sexual harassment and assault by peers or school staff to share their experiences while they attend K-12 schools. It also encourages secondary victims—the victim’s friends, family, and allies—to share how sexual harassment negatively impacts students. The hashtag spotlights the widespread sexual harassment that students experience before entering college or the workforce, and underscores the urgency of addressing this problem in early education.
SSAIS invited the NWLC, a champion of the students’ civil rights, to partner in this campaign. Their participation continues a series of collaborative efforts that began with President and CEO Fatima Goss Graves’s inaugural blog for the SSAIS website and Director of Education Neena Chaudhry’s appearance in Sexual Harassment: Not in Our School! The NWLC website recently featured SSAIS in “Why We Need Title IX to Let Her Learn: A Parent’s Perspective.”
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#MeTooK12: Centering Young Students in the Fight to End Sexual Violence
by Sabrina Stevens, Senior Digital and Mobilization Manager, National Women’s Law Center
A few weeks ago, when #MeToo was first beginning to spread online, I was chatting on a friend’s Facebook wall after she wrote a piece asking whether schools should teach boys to respect girls. Seeing some skeptics already popping up in the thread, I chimed in to affirm her stance, and expand it with some observations of my own:
Read moreFrom survivor to advocate: demanding change in the Portland, OR, school district
by Annabelle Schwartz
My name is Annabelle Schwartz, I am 18 years old, an activist, and a survivor of a peer sexual assault. It took me a long time after my initial experience to realize what had happened to me. I remember the first person I told, my boyfriend at the time, who held me as I cried in his green Toyota. At that point I could barely comprehend what I had been through, or how it would shape me into the person I am now. All I knew when I was 15 years old was that finally telling someone was my way of admitting to myself the truth of what had happened.
Read moreWe proactively address the epidemic of traumatic sexual harassment impacting our nation’s students. We provide students, K-12 schools, and organizations resources so that the right to an equal education is not compromised by sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender discrimination.
Prevent
Support
Inform
Empower
Photo credits: “Prevent” Kyle Stokes, KPLU-FM, “Support” Southern Poverty Law Center, “Inform” Diviya Rajesh, “Empower” Lindsey Cohen, KOMO-TV. “Prevent” and “Empower” from protest supported by SSAIS.
Survivors of sexual harassment and assault may immediately call 1-800-656-HOPE to be connected to the nearest crisis or counseling center. You can also use this interactive form to find local services. See additional resources here.
This website is intended to provide users with general information and resources that may be of interest. The information is provided as a public service and is not legal advice. Read more…
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools | To educate students, families, and schools about sexual assault prevention and the right to an equal education free of sexual harassment. - https://wp.me/P6aIHy-8
Sexual Harassment Defined
See also Get Help Awareness Videos K-12 Sexual Assault in the Media Sample OCR Complaints Share Your Story
Students and families across the country struggle with the devastating impact of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Yet in many cases, victims haven’t acknowledge that they’ve actually been sexually harassed or assaulted.
That’s because victims have come to accept sexual harassment as normal and sexual assault as their fault. It’s gotten so bad that girls at this school think that feeling uncomfortable is normal.
Everyone must recognize the many forms of sexual harassment and violence so students are protected and afforded an equal education, as guaranteed by Title IX. The US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has published an overview of sexual harassment titled Sexual Harassment: It’s not Academic. Here is some important information:
From The National Women’s Law Center:
How to Recognize and Combat Sexual Harassment: A Primer for Students Read online orRead Here
Cyberbullying and Sexual Harassment. Read online orRead Here
Resources for Students, Parents, & Educators Read online orRead Here
From RAINN:
Sexual Harassment in the Schools Read online orRead Here
From 1 is 2 Many (US Government):
Take Action Against Abuse – For Parents Read online orRead Here
For more information see our Awareness Videos, our selected media reports, or search sexual assaults K-12 online. Many forms of sexual harassment and violence are described in the OCR investigation letter of the Richmond (CA) School District. You may contact any OCR office for additional investigation reports or questions about definitions of sexual harassment and assault.
Sexual harassment is also defined in videos made by schools. One example is Confronting Sexual Harassment Bullying. However, although this video says schools will address reported harassment, this does not always happen. If schools always addressed harassment properly, families nationwide would not need to file complaints with OCR/other agencies, or file lawsuits. For additional descriptions of daily sexual harassment and school assault, see this video by students at Berkeley High School.
Parents have contacted SSAIS describing the following types of sexual harassment and assault (the links are to sample cases in the media):
- Cases compiled by Public Justice including verdicts/settlements
- Groping and constant sexual intimidation in the hallways
- Oral rapes upon girls in schools (in soundproof music practice rooms and unsupervised areas of the school)
- Rapes behind buildings during afterschool sports practice
- Sexual harassment/violence on school busses, at middle and high schools
- Rapes at school dances or off campus followed by social media postings and retaliation for reporting
- Teacher on student sexual harassment/assaults
- Sexual assaults on overnight school fieldtrips
- Sexual assaults of boys under the guise of “hazing”
- Self-harm and suicide when sexual harassment and violence destroys a student’s life at school, among numerous other tragic reports
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools | To educate students, families, and schools about sexual assault prevention and the right to an equal education free of sexual harassment. - https://wp.me/P6aIHy-8
