According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) sexual violence is a blanket term that covers any crimes such as sexual assault, rape, and abuse. To be more specific, the state of North Carolina defines sexual assault as “any offense in which the defendant subjects one or more victims to unwanted sexual acts” (FindLaw’s team of legal writers and editors). With more and more survivors coming out and testifying against their abusers, those individual’s statements should be taken seriously. When you throw the case out or throw it to the side, you send a message to those that were abused that they should just live with the trauma of it and not tell anyone about it. Doing this only harms the individual more and halts the healing process.
A couple of days ago, a female student at D.H. Conley High School in Greenville, NC reported being sexually assaulted by a male student, who had also allegedly assaulted six other females at the school. A friend of the female that reported the assault to school administration and the school resource officer wasn’t taken serious and was actually threatened with 3-days of school suspension if she or the other girls did not keep quiet about the situation. To further add, the unnamed male student faced no repercussions and was not even removed from the female student’s class.
When we hear about situations such as this one, it’s usually on a college campus, however something so close to home (same city as our university) is happening to girls at an even younger age. By law, children are required to attend school daily, so why does the school administration react in such a way? If the government is expecting children to spend 8 hours away from their parents daily, the staff in the school should be held accountable for incidents like this. It seems as if nowadays more and more sexual violence cases aren’t being taken as serious as they should be.
It’s disheartening to hear survivors of these horrific attacks not be taken seriously by people that were put into certain job roles to protect them. Like I stated previously, when those in charge throw these cases to the side and don’t take them seriously, victims oftentimes hold in their trauma and do not speak about it. Instead they begin to let their trauma define them and change who they are as a person. (ex: an outgoing person becoming more and more reserved).
As we stated in class, Title IX updated rules to tend to the accused, but how come it doesn’t account for those in power to take cases seriously. No matter the race of the survivor, gender of the survivor, or age of the survivor, they should be taken seriously! A suggestion I pose is to hold those that treat cases in such manner just as responsible as the abuser that committed the crime. If they had any accountability placed on them, I feel as if more and more cases would be taken seriously. Which leads me to my point of, if it doesn’t pertain to us, why should we care? is a mindset society has adopted.
To conclude, I believe sexual assault cases are not handled as seriously in society as they should be. I’ve heard of stories at universities of this happening, but never thought it would happen at the high school level. It’s really shocking too because one big argument people love to bring up to survivors is, Well, what were you wearing? but when you think about it, high schools have such strict dress codes, and situations like this are still happening!
FindLaw’s definition of Sexual Assault: https://www.findlaw.com/state/north-carolina-law/north-carolina-sexual-assault-laws.html
Article Referenced: https://www.witn.com/2021/11/05/dh-conley-student-says-she-six-other-girls-were-sexually-assaulted/