Students and Faculty Attend Virtual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent

Dec 16

Dec 16 Students and Faculty Attend Virtual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent

This year was Georgetown Day School’s Fourth Annual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent. Organized by GDS students, the summit brings together students and educators from schools around the country - including Riverdale - to have much-needed discus… — This year was Georgetown Day School’s Fourth Annual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent. Organized by GDS students, the summit brings together students and educators from schools around the country - including Riverdale - to have much-needed discussions surrounding assault and consent in school communities.

In the United States, one out of every six people is a victim of rape. 42.2% of female victims suffered this sexual violence as minors. The LGBTQ+ community is particularly vulnerable to experiencing sexual violence; around half of transgender people in the U.S. are victims of sexual assault. These statistics from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network may seem jarring to many in the Riverdale community. However, our shock only points to a pervasive issue in the conversation on sexual assault. Many times, there is no conversation.

For weeks, months, even years after the crime has occured, survivors endure a long and painful process to recovery. Guilt. Shame. Emotional isolation. These are the psychological tolls of living in a society where talking about sexual assault is still considered taboo. However, only eight states, California, Delaware, Oregon, South Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey, as well as the District of Columbia, require consent education to be implemented into sex education curriculum. In New York State, sex education is not even a mandatory part of health curriculum, much less consent education.

In light of this lack of education, the annual student-led Georgetown Day School Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent provides a space for students across the country to engage in conversations about sexual violence and serves as a reminder of the immense impact teenagers can have on their communities in changing the narrative on sexual assault.

This year, two juniors, Chaz Collins and Will Jenkins, as well as Upper School counselor Ms. Allison Finder, Assistant Athletics Trainer Mr. Mike Powers, Middle and Upper School physical education coach Mr. Nick Walsh, and Middle and Upper School counselor Ms. Cynthia De La Rosa, attended the conference virtually on November 20th and November 21st. There, they participated in cohort sessions and workshops, all seeking to address two major questions: “What is the issue?” and “Where do we go from here?” Reflecting on the breakout room discussions held during the meeting, Mr. Powers said, “For a faculty member, it was very eye-opening. I felt like I was just kind of a fly on the wall in the conversation more than anything because the kids were talking about the issues and leading the conversation.”

Later in the day, Ms. Finder, Mr. Powers, and Collins all attended the “Boys Leading Boys: A Young Man's Role in the Fight to End Sexual Assault” workshop, which showcased the efforts by male students at Georgetown Day School (GDS) to bring high school boys into the conversation through open forum discussions. For Ms. Finder, it was an opportunity to learn about ideas and actions she could take back and implement at Riverdale. “I’m someone who has been doing work in sex education and consent and gender equity for a while now, and where I’m trying to … focus is how we can get male-identified folks involved in work that has maybe historically seemed like it was a women’s rights issue, when actually it’s an issue for everyone, no matter how you identify,” said Ms. Finder.

Mr. Powers echoed the sentiment, stating that while “on this campus it is the females that champion the conversation around consent, it's not a gender-exclusive issue. Men are not just perpetrators, but they're also victims. So I think there needs to be a more vocal male presence on this campus.”

Perhaps the easiest way to measure the impact of the conference is through the student action it has already inspired. After attending the Boys Leading Boys (BLB) workshop, Collins and Jenkins reached out to the student leaders who started the initiative at GDS, as well as Assistant Head of Upper School Ms. Blair Parker and Director of Summer Study Programs Ms. Georgia Tucker, to discuss starting a Riverdale BLB activity next semester. “We discussed, we learned during that workshop, but now it's our job as individuals to take this back to our community . . . And I think this is the most important part. And it doesn't have to be anything big at all. It can be something as small as changing the way we view rape culture, sexual violence, toxic masculinity within our homes and within our friend groups. And you know, starting small there can create really, really big ripple effects,” Collins explained.

Starting small also means starting young. While many Riverdale students see conversations on consent as confined to the Middle School Health or Upper School Delta classroom, consent applies outside of sex education. “My position is that consent is really just empathy. It’s really just caring enough about another person to make sure they feel safe and happy in your presence, no matter what you’re doing,” said Ms. Finder. She added, “So if we are not teaching consent as a foundational piece of how we engage in our relationships, we are not going to have healthy, fulfilling, satisfying relationships, and sexual assault will likely continue to be perpetrated and perpetuated. ”

Instead of starting the conversation in high school, they believe that consent education should be introduced at the elementary school level, curriculum which Riverdale already has in place at the Lower School. “Having worked at the Lower School, kids deal with consent in the first and second grade. One kid wants to wrestle at the playground, but that doesn't mean the other person and the rest of them want to. That's ‘consent 101’ training from a young age,” said Mr. Powers. As Collins added, teaching consent on the playground means that “when we're ready to have these serious conversations, students are more engaged, they understand what we're talking about, and they’re better able to discuss and learn.”

While students may be better informed about the preventative measures Riverdale has taken against sexual assault, they may be uninformed about the resources available to students who have experienced it. For many survivors, it is not an easy topic to open up about.

“Sexual assault or feeling violated can feel like such a huge burden and it can be really isolating, so I think the more that people can connect and reach out to that one person [for support], even if that one person isn’t a therapist or a counselor. If it’s your dean, the dean could then get you support from there. But it’s not something that anyone should ever have to go through alone,“ said Ms. Finder. She also recommended outside resources such as the Joyful Heart Foundation, Day One, the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, or the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, if they did not feel comfortable reaching out to the counseling team.

Ultimately, action starts with the individual. Destigmatizing discussions about sexual violence will not be accomplished with a single law, school policy, or health class. It will require constant action to push back against rape culture and common victim-blaming narratives present in our society. The first step is starting and maintaining the conversation.

Source:

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence

End note:

Riverdale has a designated group of faculty members who have been trained to receive and respond to reports of sexual harassment or assault. These faculty members can help students through the process of reporting and ensure that every student receives the resources and support they deserve. These faculty members and their roles are listed below: