We are a group at Austin High school working on our Capstone project through the Academy for Global Studies. We have chosen to raise awareness for sexual assault both in Austin and throughout the United States. We are specifically focusing on sexual assault on college campuses and in relationships. Sexual assault is an issue that is often pushed under the rug because of the stigma it has. Sexual assault is not a well understood topic, it has many misconceptions and stereotypes. Many are under the assumption that it only happens to women, that it is random, and that it is violent. These stereotypes are not true, men and women can be sexually assault, as well as assault others, and it can be silent. Sexual assault is a universal issue and we hope to give students a better understanding of sexual assault, the misconceptions, consent, healthy relationships, the legislation put into place to define consent and to protect the victims of assault , and how to report sexual assault.
There are many misconceptions about sexual assault, and because of this there are issues with reporting sexual assault. Because there is a warped understanding of sexual assault, many people can be sexually assaulted and not realize what it was. This can ultimately lead to anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. A contributing factor to the warped understanding of sexual assault is that there is no clear line of consent; there is legislation in Texas saying no means no, but the flaw in this is that you must clearly articulate no it order for it to be held in court. So unfortunately unless the victim doesn't specifically verbalize that they don’t want to engage in sexual behavior, it is still considered okay. In order to prevent this from occurring in Austin, we want to have a day dedicated to this legislature to hopefully advocate for a policy change. We also want to inform our audience about the blurred lines when someone is under the influence, many men and women are sexually assaulted while under the influence because they are not able to fully consent. Consent is a clear yes. But non consent is a clear no, which leads to a lot of unreported assault cases and perpetrators are not being brought to justice.
We also want to stress that sexual assault can happen in relationships, we want to raise awareness for unhealthy relationships, and how that can lead to sexual assault. In order to do this we want to dedicate a day in our sexual assault week to dedicate to healthy relationships. We want to raise awareness because all too often many assaults are not reported because they happen within relationships. We want to teach our audience about the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship, such as; being over controlling, keeping you from friends or family, threats, and stalking. And then the signs that you have been abused or a friend has been abused.
It is not a new issue, but one in five women are sexually assaulted in college, and one in three women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime in the United States. These statistics may not seem scary until you realize that a rape happens every two minutes in the united states, and that 233,986 women are raped a year. Fifteen percent of sexual assaults happen to ages twelve and under, twenty nine percent are ages twelve to seventeen, forty four percent are under eighteen years old, and in total eighty percent of sexual assaults occur in ages under thirty years old. We also noticed that only 39% of sexual assaults, rapes, and attempted sexual assaults are reported to the police every year. In a study many people said that they didn’t report to the police for personal reasons, fear of reprisal, and fear that the police will be biased. This is an alarming number because that means that the 233,986 people raped each year are only 39 percent of the total amount of rape each year. This means that in the United States there could be a total of 599,964 people are raped each year, and only 233,986 are reported.
We think that these are scary numbers, by creating a sexual assault awareness week at Austin High we hope to not only raise awareness for the issue, we hope to persuade victims to come forward. In hopes of persuading victims to come forward, we have contacted a few public officials to learn more about what the Austin community is doing to create an assault free environment. Organizations such as Safe Place, and Voices against Violence are working in the Austin area to raise awareness for sexual assault, teach men and women how to protect themselves, and ensure safety when a victim reports an assault. Both of these groups have been very successful, Voices Against Violence have been working on the University of Texas campus and just this year UT has been named one of the safest campuses, and the top campus for speaking up against sexual assault. Safe Place has been providing safety for victims of abuse and sexual assault for many years, and they have been providing crisis lines as well.
We are pushing for our audience to be seniors ready to go to college, as well as the health classes at Austin High. We hope to have the age of our audience to be between 16-19 years old. Girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen are more likely to be sexually assault than the general population so we are hoping to create one day of our week to teach girls between these ages how to protect themselves against assault and false accusation. We are under the opinion that one of the biggest prevention methods is awareness and understanding, we are not alone in this opinion. Many other programs are taking this approach (Voices against Violence, Safe Place) and they provide help by supporting victims, raising awareness, and working to give victims safety if they report their assault. But some other programs push for more radical prevention methods such as self-defense and a complete change in policy. We believe that raising awareness is the best preventative method because by bringing this issue to light we can get rid of the stereotypes and misconceptions, help people recognize if they have been assaulted, help them protect themselves, and encourage people to come forward to report their assault by explaining the measures put into place to keep them safe.
We have found that many opinions formed on sexual assault come from the lack of understanding of the issue in general. Many people don’t know what sexual assault is, they aren't clear on what consent is, and they don’t have an overall understanding of sexual assault is. Many people also fear coming forward with sexual assault. After extensive research we found that most people that are victim of assault are afraid to report it for various reasons, many know their attacker, they are afraid of another assault, they can also be afraid of reprisal.
Our main goal is to create a safer environment at Austin High School, we want to give our audience the information they need to clearly understand what sexual assault is and give them the information to recognize it. We also want to give our audience the steps they need to protect themselves against assault and false accusation, this means we will be giving them lessons in consent so they aren't falsely accused, and ways they can use the buddy systems to protect themselves against sexual assault. Finally we will teach our audience how to come forward if they or a friend has been assaulted, we want to ensure them that they are safe coming forward, we will have police officers and counselors talking to our audience about how to make a report, and the support offered. The counselors will also talk about the emotional issues that some people may go through after an assault or attempted assault, and then talk about the steps to recovery. We will also have police talk about the laws behind assault. We will then talk about the legislation that is behind sexual assault and that has been put into place to protect victims and get them the justice they deserve. We hope that in teaching our audience about all of these things, we can protect them as they go through high school and go to college. Our end goal and our more long lasting goal is to create a sexual assault week that can continue on after we leave Austin High, and to make college campuses safer by informing our seniors on sexual assault.
There are many misconceptions about sexual assault, and because of this there are issues with reporting sexual assault. Because there is a warped understanding of sexual assault, many people can be sexually assaulted and not realize what it was. This can ultimately lead to anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. A contributing factor to the warped understanding of sexual assault is that there is no clear line of consent; there is legislation in Texas saying no means no, but the flaw in this is that you must clearly articulate no it order for it to be held in court. So unfortunately unless the victim doesn't specifically verbalize that they don’t want to engage in sexual behavior, it is still considered okay. In order to prevent this from occurring in Austin, we want to have a day dedicated to this legislature to hopefully advocate for a policy change. We also want to inform our audience about the blurred lines when someone is under the influence, many men and women are sexually assaulted while under the influence because they are not able to fully consent. Consent is a clear yes. But non consent is a clear no, which leads to a lot of unreported assault cases and perpetrators are not being brought to justice.
We also want to stress that sexual assault can happen in relationships, we want to raise awareness for unhealthy relationships, and how that can lead to sexual assault. In order to do this we want to dedicate a day in our sexual assault week to dedicate to healthy relationships. We want to raise awareness because all too often many assaults are not reported because they happen within relationships. We want to teach our audience about the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship, such as; being over controlling, keeping you from friends or family, threats, and stalking. And then the signs that you have been abused or a friend has been abused.
It is not a new issue, but one in five women are sexually assaulted in college, and one in three women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime in the United States. These statistics may not seem scary until you realize that a rape happens every two minutes in the united states, and that 233,986 women are raped a year. Fifteen percent of sexual assaults happen to ages twelve and under, twenty nine percent are ages twelve to seventeen, forty four percent are under eighteen years old, and in total eighty percent of sexual assaults occur in ages under thirty years old. We also noticed that only 39% of sexual assaults, rapes, and attempted sexual assaults are reported to the police every year. In a study many people said that they didn’t report to the police for personal reasons, fear of reprisal, and fear that the police will be biased. This is an alarming number because that means that the 233,986 people raped each year are only 39 percent of the total amount of rape each year. This means that in the United States there could be a total of 599,964 people are raped each year, and only 233,986 are reported.
We think that these are scary numbers, by creating a sexual assault awareness week at Austin High we hope to not only raise awareness for the issue, we hope to persuade victims to come forward. In hopes of persuading victims to come forward, we have contacted a few public officials to learn more about what the Austin community is doing to create an assault free environment. Organizations such as Safe Place, and Voices against Violence are working in the Austin area to raise awareness for sexual assault, teach men and women how to protect themselves, and ensure safety when a victim reports an assault. Both of these groups have been very successful, Voices Against Violence have been working on the University of Texas campus and just this year UT has been named one of the safest campuses, and the top campus for speaking up against sexual assault. Safe Place has been providing safety for victims of abuse and sexual assault for many years, and they have been providing crisis lines as well.
We are pushing for our audience to be seniors ready to go to college, as well as the health classes at Austin High. We hope to have the age of our audience to be between 16-19 years old. Girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen are more likely to be sexually assault than the general population so we are hoping to create one day of our week to teach girls between these ages how to protect themselves against assault and false accusation. We are under the opinion that one of the biggest prevention methods is awareness and understanding, we are not alone in this opinion. Many other programs are taking this approach (Voices against Violence, Safe Place) and they provide help by supporting victims, raising awareness, and working to give victims safety if they report their assault. But some other programs push for more radical prevention methods such as self-defense and a complete change in policy. We believe that raising awareness is the best preventative method because by bringing this issue to light we can get rid of the stereotypes and misconceptions, help people recognize if they have been assaulted, help them protect themselves, and encourage people to come forward to report their assault by explaining the measures put into place to keep them safe.
We have found that many opinions formed on sexual assault come from the lack of understanding of the issue in general. Many people don’t know what sexual assault is, they aren't clear on what consent is, and they don’t have an overall understanding of sexual assault is. Many people also fear coming forward with sexual assault. After extensive research we found that most people that are victim of assault are afraid to report it for various reasons, many know their attacker, they are afraid of another assault, they can also be afraid of reprisal.
Our main goal is to create a safer environment at Austin High School, we want to give our audience the information they need to clearly understand what sexual assault is and give them the information to recognize it. We also want to give our audience the steps they need to protect themselves against assault and false accusation, this means we will be giving them lessons in consent so they aren't falsely accused, and ways they can use the buddy systems to protect themselves against sexual assault. Finally we will teach our audience how to come forward if they or a friend has been assaulted, we want to ensure them that they are safe coming forward, we will have police officers and counselors talking to our audience about how to make a report, and the support offered. The counselors will also talk about the emotional issues that some people may go through after an assault or attempted assault, and then talk about the steps to recovery. We will also have police talk about the laws behind assault. We will then talk about the legislation that is behind sexual assault and that has been put into place to protect victims and get them the justice they deserve. We hope that in teaching our audience about all of these things, we can protect them as they go through high school and go to college. Our end goal and our more long lasting goal is to create a sexual assault week that can continue on after we leave Austin High, and to make college campuses safer by informing our seniors on sexual assault.