Reply to New Sexual Assault Case. What school?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "New Sexual Assault Case. What school?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm telling you guys, these anonymous instagram posts are full of BS. If someone really got assaulted, it should by all means be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Administrators who turned a blind eye should also be held accountable. BUT these "black at *****" and "female at ******" where ANYONE can just submit an anonymous claim... don't ever underestimate the power of bored teenagers (and adults) sitting at home ready to write fan fiction. Or people with a grudge against someone or their family. I could literally go on that account right now and claim to be a high school girl who was assaulted at Blair. And I don't even live in Maryland![/quote]

I agree.   They do serve to highlight that systemic racism happens everywhere, but I would not take individual stories to heart.  Not on the internet, and certainly not from anonymous posters.[/quote]

I have 2 kids at an MCPS school which has a survivors at instagram account.  Many of the posted stories are well known to them already, having heard and/or witnessed events.

I'll tell you from a female point of view (as an adult) and from the point of view of my HS aged female child -- the problem is YOU in that you (and many other adults in positions of power) would prefer to believe these stories are made up.  In 12 years of raising 2 kids in the MCPS system, I can tell many horrifying stories about racism and sexism.  W/reference to sexism, in MCPS, I have seen a number of verifiable sexual assault incidents go unreported and unpunished.  And then there is the plethora of sexual assault and harassment cases that are sub-criminal but still unacceptable -- that teacher that stares at your boobs or talks about sexual things?  not a crime.  The boy that tries to kiss you without consent.  No one is going to believe you or treat it as a sexual assault.  The teacher that continually criticizes your dress-code allowed clothing?  also not a crime, not reportable, not considered an offense of any kind and teacher will not be corrected. [/quote]

Those are two very different things. One is a person bringing a complaint to a teacher or administrator. That should be fully investigated. Individual anonymous stories on line are useless. Collectively yes they present a problem. But I will never believe individual posts from anonymous posters. Do something to ensure complaints are investigated. Don’t waste your energy on these posts though. [/quote]

Sorry, but as these girls have seen from the MeToo movement, anonymous stories can be quite powerful when they demonstrate patterns of abuse that go unaddressed or they identify perpetrators responsible for multiple criminal acts in a similar pattern.

Would that we had a Ryan Farrow, Jody Kantor or Megan Twohey who would pursue these claims, put together the narratives and publicly identify repeat perpetrators and administrators who act as facilitators or bystanders.

Even the adult women who created the google doc "shitty media men" that identified industry perpetrators were able to force a number of men out of positions of power.  Yale women also created a similar doc.

HS girls have seen the power that their stories hold and that is not going away, whether they use whisper networks or confront boys in school and force the admin to hold school discussions on incidents (as happened with the ranking list at BCC, reported in WaPo, the Kojo show, and other local media.)

These complaints should be taken seriously and investigated, whether or not they contain names.  The anonymous stories reflect a serious problem with sexual assault and harassment in schools that at a minimum can and should be ameliorated by increased training, better accountability mechanisms and better sex education in the areas of consent and criminal sexual behavior.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics