LEADERSHIP

Disclaimer: This page includes discussion of sexual violence including sexual assault and child abuse.

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Background: Every 73 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted, and every 9 minutes, that victim is a child (RAINN). Sexual assault and abuse is an incredibly widespread issue. There are tons of recommendations made to victims and potential victims of how to avoid sexual violence. Things like don’t go anywhere alone, carry a weapon, don’t dress or act provocatively, don’t get involved with the wrong people, and many more that we all are familiar with. While these recommendations are based on safety and may be effective some of the time, they cannot stop sexual assault, because the only cause of sexual assault is the perpetrator. In order for this widespread issue to stop, we need comprehensive education on consent, sexual assault, and what healthy relationships look like. By looking at what I learned in PSYC 410 about the fight, flight, or freeze responses to stress, it is easy to understand that many people freeze when facing a trauma like sexual assault because they often don’t know what is happening or how to help themselves. If kids were learning this material in school, they would learn, both what consent is and how to know what is right and healthy, and possibly would feel more equipped and prepared when faced with this horrific situation. I want to reiterate that sexual violence is in no way the fault of the victim, and by suggesting that they may be able to better respond when they have more education on consent is not in any way saying that those who are assaulted are at fault for not knowing how to stop it. Sexual assault is always the perpetrator’s fault, and at the same time education can help potential victims protect themselves and recognize when something is wrong. On the flip side, potential perpetrators who have received this education will have no choice but to remember what they have learned through this program and know that what they are doing is completely wrong. This could help to prevent sexual violence. When this is treated as a taboo subject, no one has the space to ask questions or learn about what consent is in order to protect themselves and others in their relationships. With the right age-appropriate education available in school and to parents, we can change the culture of sexual violence we are living in and increase healthy relationships and knowledge of consent while decreasing sexual assaults and abuse.

Importance of Issue: Sexual violence is a widespread issue in this country, as around 433,648 Americans 12 or older are sexually assaulted each year. This includes 60,000 children who are victims of sexual abuse. Through my leadership experience as a research assistant in an intimate partner violence psychology lab, I have seen just how prominent this problem is and how many people are affected by it. By spending so much time the past two years researching these issues, I have learned that education is a truly powerful weapon that can be used to prevent more sexual assault from happening, especially when it starts at an early age. By using age-appropriate sex and healthy relationship education, we can not only help potential victims know how to handle and identify dangerous situations but can also educate potential perpetrators on the effects of this violence and how to have healthy sexual interactions and relationships.

Goal: My goal in this project is to provide easy to understand and comprehensive age-appropriate education on consent, sexual assault, and healthy relationships to both public and private schools and communities. Since there are no regulations on sex education on private schools, and public schools aren’t 100% regulated, by offering this curriculum, it will at least make it one step easier for schools to provide it to students and parents if they choose to do so. By offering it to the community through workshops and programs, it will reach a larger amount of people and provide options to still get the information to those whose schools may choose not to implement it. This project directly relates to my third key insight on using education to support survivors of sexual assault, but takes it a step further by focusing on prevention of sexual assault and abuse.

Recommendations: I understand that this can be a heavy and uncomfortable subject, which makes it hard to talk about. Sex and sexual assault is also not something that is appropriate to talk about at all ages. Because of this, I recommend a tiered version of the curriculum that increases in content at age-appropriate levels and presents only the necessary information in order to not upset kids or parents. This can be based on the Health Education K-12 Learning Standards from Senate Bill 5395 which outlines age appropriate standards for sexual health education. These standards provide a great framework for content to provide, but my project will take it a step further to provide an actual curriculum based off of these standards’ recommendations.

While this curriculum will be offered to schools, it is also recommended that parents are educated on this matter so that they can continue the skills and knowledge their kids may learn at school in the home. For instance, some skills and things they may learn about consent could be practiced in natural settings at home with parents, making the material generalizable to other social settings, which is extremely important. For example, teaching young kids through the curriculum to say no if they don’t want to be tickled or respecting when someone asks them to stop tickling is an age-appropriate way to practice giving and respecting consent when it comes to personal space and our bodies. If parents are aware of this, they can practice using these skills with their kids and reminding their children of these skills when they need to use them during playtime with other children or family members. By learning these simple skills and rights in a play setting, children will be able to generalize it to potentially dangerous and abusive situations they may find themselves in. By providing the curriculum to both parents and faculty at the schools, it makes the material more generalizable and gets the parents involved and equipped to continue to raise their children even when they’re not in school.

Implementation: Because of the lack of regulations for sexual health education in private schools and even many public schools, the full implementation of this project will be a challenge. To speak plainly, there is no way to ensure that this material will be taught to every kid in school. That is why my focus is on creating this accessible and easy-to-use curriculum to present to schools and parents to give them the option to teach it to their children. Even though there are standards, having a comprehensive curriculum handed to them will make it much easier for faculty and parents to teach this material, and will take away the barrier of having to create a curriculum based on these guidelines, making it much easier and desirable to implement.

Along with simply offering this curriculum to schools, I want to also attack the problem at another angle, by offering programs/workshops outside of school available to the community for both parents and children that teaches the same material. This will help reach those parents who may want to educate their children on these matters, but don’t know how and who’s school is not choosing to implement the curriculum. This also will make the information accessible to people who don’t attend the schools, therefore reaching a larger population. I would like to implement this plan in local K-12 public schools, and then expand to offering it to various private schools in the area. I would also implement it in the local counties that correspond with the public schools in order to make my community programs accessible.

Evaluation: The way I can evaluate the effectiveness of this project on a long-term scale is by assessing the statistics on sexual assault and abuse in the areas that do accept the curriculum, and areas that have good attendance for the community programs. This way, we will be able to see if there is any positive effect from the curriculum and reevaluate if changes need to be made to be more effective. On a smaller and more short-term scale, I will take feedback from both the faculty of schools, and the parents and children at the schools and community programs to get a sense of what is making sense and working and what isn’t. Using this feedback, I will be able to tailor the curriculum in any way to better suit the participants needs.

References:

https://www.k12.wa.us/student-success/resources-subject-area/sexual-health-education

https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/healthfitness/standards/healtheducationk-12learningstandards.pdf

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens

https://www.rsd.edu/departments/teaching-learning-curriculum/curriculum

https://siecus.org/state_profile/south-carolina-state-profile/#:~:text=Private%20schools%20are%20not%20required,(A)(5)%20unconstitutional.

https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/non-public-education/regulation-map/southcarolina.html

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Resources: 

National Sexual Assault Hotline: Confidential 24/7 Support: 800-656-4673

Child Abuse Toll-Free Hotline: 800.4.A.CHILD (800-422-4453)

Child Sexual Abuse Toll-Free Hotline: 866.FOR.LIGHT (866-367-5444)

https://www.rainn.org/resources

https://www.rainn.org/national-resources-sexual-assault-survivors-and-their-loved-ones

https://www.rainn.org/articles/child-sexual-abuse