By Celestina Martinez, Student Submission
Name changed in this article to protect privacy.
81% of students in grades 8-11 report being sexually harassed, and 87% of these people said they were negatively affected, according to StopSexualAssaultinSchools.org.
Ashley was a sophomore at a Saginaw high school when she experienced sexual assaults and harassment. One act was committed by a fellow classmate in her grade. The boy that committed the act was a younger classmate, known for being inappropriate with other female classmates.
Ashley waited a year to tell someone. She eventually told her boyfriend, then her mother and, lastly, the principal of the school. Since a year had passed, there wasn’t much that could be done. There was no police report or rape kit. Physical evidence was gone, there were no text messages from the young man and he had already transferred schools.
The young man that had made the comments was forced to apologize to her.
The rest of high school was hard for Ashley. She turned to negative coping mechanisms such as drugs, drinking and self-harm. Ashely had three suicide attempts during her sophomore year and one during the summer before her junior year.
Today, Ashley still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and vivid flashbacks, but has stepped away from hard drug use and attends therapy.
Taking all of her negative emotions, Ashley channels them through her photography.
“I focus on the emotions that women hide and their mental health,” says Ashley.
She takes her three common emotions that she feels – depression, anger and isolation – and puts those in her works, capturing the moments that feel dark and sublimating them into something beautiful.
Now, Ashley is five years sober and thriving in her art. She has become a mental health and sexual assault activist on her college campus.
In 2014, the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reported receiving more sexual discrimination complaints then ever before.
Title IX has been in law for 45 years, and yet school administrators ignore it at their peril. School districts often believe that they inoculate themselves against legal action and bad press if they simply deny or ignore sexual harassment or sexual assault in the schools.
No one should be alone during hard situations. If you need help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, available 24/7: 1-800-656-4673.
