I agree completely. Until there is some resolution, stay in a group
Even AFTER it's resolved, you should STAY in groups!
This makes me SO ANGRY I'm nauseated. This should NOT have happened!
WHY DOES ANYONE THINK SCHOOLS ARE SAFE? It's about the biggest lie we tell ourselves as a society--it's just not true!
I won't get into the list of assaults, sexual and otherwise, that I was privy to as a teacher. Suffice it to say that even at the most remote, rural school that I taught in, not a month went by when something bad didn't happen.
Teaching in Los Angeles--it was almost daily.
Grown women are taught in self defense classes to stay in groups or pairs in public. Why in the world do parents not teach their children this about school? True, it's rarely a stranger assault like this one--students are usually attacked by fellow students.
And this school should be taking a MUCH more serious approach to security, if I were the PTA president, I'd be on the prinicpal's desk this morning screaming about additional police, because clearly, WHAT THEY HAD WASN'T ENOUGH!
I'm going to make a radical suggestion, Megan.
If you have a Girl's Association at your high school, you need to get the officers to call a meeting, and the GA needs to petition the school and the district for women's self defense training to be made available after school or at lunches for all interested women--not just students, but teachers and staff. Get GA to sponsor fundraising activities to help with the costs. You can do lunchtime/bake sales, holiday deliveries, etc.
If you don't have a Girl's Association at your high school, then you should use this tragedy to GET ONE STARTED.
One school I taught at had a GA from the time it opened, and over the years that GA sponsored all kinds of things, some serious like the self defense classes, a 24 hour crisis phone line, blood drives, women's shelter donation drives and breast cancer runners. They also sponsored lots of fun stuff, like ladies' choice dances, and Secret Santa Xmases for needy families, and Battle of the Sexes spirit rallies (complete with trophy that got painted pink or blue, depending on who won each semester.) There was almost NEVER a day that the GA at that school didn't have at least one table set up in the hallways at lunchtime, selling homemade cookies and snacks (think carrots and celery for dieting girls!) to raise $$$ for the stuff they were sponsoring. Some of their other fundraisers included 'Secret Admirer' lolly-grams (a lollypop with a message attached delivered on Friday Mornings during announcements for a quarter--the lollys cost like, 2 cents in a huge tub!) and the ever popular summer car washes. Dues were a dollar a year, and every female in the school could belong, including teachers and staff. Each year, they elect a governing board of 4 member teachers/staff members and 2 student reps from each class, as well as a general Pres/Vice/Sec/Treasurer who can be from any class; the principal was the only unelected member of the board. It's not a politically correct thing to promote, a girls' only club, but they can be a powerful force for good in a school.
Devastating things happen all the time, and too often they're just left to fester and hurt. Don't let that happen here. Use the fear and anger you and the rest of the girls are feeling because this happened so close to you to get started. You do NOT have to be powerless. Get those defense classes--it's tragic that women need to know this stuff, but we do. Even if you have to start a GA from scratch to get them, it's a way to make a terrible, unspeakable thing into a chance to keep it from happening to someone else. It might even help the victim here to feel a little safer coming back to school if she knew that her classmates are committed to making sure something is being done, and God knows she'll need that.
And DON'T go anywhere alone, Megan. Not even to the bathroom, and if your teachers scoff at you, just tell them "Excuse me, there was a RAPE down the hall, remember? I'm not going alone." Just because he ran off doesn't mean he won't come back. It took 4 separate incidents over nearly a month before they finally caught a flasher that was going into girls restrooms and locker rooms in one Salt Lake City district I taught in. Don't be paranoid of everyone you see, but keep yourself and other safe by being together--please, please, PLEASE!
