A Wisconsin high school's worksheet on how to deal with sexual assault is going viral for including a question that implies victims are at fault.
After watching a video on sexual assault, students at Bradford High School in Kenosha, WI, had to complete the worksheet, and the very first thing they were tasked with was to provide at least four examples of how a girl in the video could have avoided being victimized.
Yes, out of everything they could've asked first, they led with THAT question.
A mother of one of the students who had to complete the worksheet, Charity Willard Eigenberger, shared a photo of it on her Facebook page, and currently it has around 10,000 shares and 3.5k comments.
Many were enraged that the question, which they say perpetuates victim-blaming, would be part of the assignment. One user wrote, "Literal rape culture and why we have #MeToo. Question should have been what the RAPIST could have done to avoid her sexual assault. Full stop. Any other answer IS supporting the rapist."
Another wrote, "Literally nothing a victim or potential victim does will stop a rape. Me doing things to potentially make me 'safer' don’t stop the actual problem. They do nothing about the rapist who still has the urge and ability to commit the act."
Others, meanwhile, believed the question wasn't intended to victim-blame, but rather, was meant to teach kids to be cautious. "Yes, we all know the victim isn't to blame, but there are things we can do to keep ourselves safe from demented souls, right? Like travel in pairs or groups in bad areas, or at night, stay in lighted areas or similar."
Another user said the question should've been reworded. "The wording sort of implies she put herself in that situation, but if someone wants to hurt you like that, they’re going to do it regardless of how you try to avoid it. If they’re going to ask a question like that, it needs to say, 'How might she defend herself?' Meaning what might she do during the incident? Are there any self-defense moves she can do, etc. Even doing nothing is a defense mechanism if you’re afraid of making the attacker angry."
Since sharing her post, Charity said the principal of her daughter's school contacted her immediately and apologized for the assignment and the question. In another Facebook post, she explained, "The lesson has been pulled, and he thanked me for the social media post because he has gotten hundreds of emails from all over the world, and in many of them people have offered resources and curricula that he and his health education department would’ve not otherwise been exposed to. They plan on going through those resources and deciding what can best be utilized in their program."
According to the National Sexual Violence Research Center, in the U.S., one in three women and one in six men experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. But unfortunately, a 2017 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that about 75 percent of the cases go unreported.
Although it's good to know schools are making attempts to teach students about sexual assault, it's also important they pay attention to the language and tone they use when educating people on the subject. Showing kids a video on how to deal with assault is helpful, but if it implies they shouldn't have gotten into that position in the first place, rather than placing the blame on the perpetrator, it might actually discourage victims from seeking help they need.