Humans of East: Mary Gagen

Freshman Mary Gagen is planning a Sexual Assault Awareness Month project in hopes of raising awareness about sexual assault and giving victims a safe place to speak out. She plans to partner with the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assualt to educate students.

What is the goal of your project?

“The three points I want to drive home are the shame of being sexually assaulted is not on the victim, it’s not their fault. It doesn’t need to be embarrassing for them. And second is Shawnee Mission East is a safe place for anyone to speak up and find help, so I’m trying to create the environment in which it is safe to speak up. The third is that you are not alone.”

How do you plan to achieve these goals?

“Having MOCSA come in. We’re planning for April of 2023 and we will have some assemblies [to learn] about sexual assault. Then we can have some sort of drive and a walk for awareness and fundraising.”

Why did you want to create this project?

“This is a subject close to my heart, and I know a lot of people who have faced this personally, whether or not they reported it. A lot haven’t, and a lot didn’t even know it was assault. Not only having the pain of being hurt by someone else, but also having to navigate how to speak out and get help is a big piece of it and I really want to create a community here where it’s safe to do that.”

What has been the most challenging part of creating this project?

“Definitely getting [the project] started. I had no clue where to start.”

What has been the most surprising part of creating the project?

“The amount of support I have gotten so far. I have received an enormous amount of support from every club and administration I’ve reached out to.”

If you and your project could make one significant change in the school what would it be?

“I know high school can be a judgmental place. I want there to be an underlying understanding that humans comes before whatever drama is going on, and I want there to be a community sense where it’s safe to get help. I don’t want this to be a therapy group, like you can’t come to a teenager with your problems and expect them to fix it, but you can come to the group and figure out how to report it and how to get the resources to help.”

I know you were hand making bracelets to raise awareness for the project and giving them out, how many did you make and hand out?

“Probably like 20, it took a while. They were just beaded bracelets that I would make growing up. Everyone was different: some said SAAM [Sexual Assault Awareness Month], some said consent, things like that. I gave a few out in my math class, they ran out a lot quicker than I expected. They take forever to make, but they ran out really quick.”

Would you ever consider taking this outside the East community?

“I’m hoping as it grows, that it can become apart of the East community and then sort of grow to include the Prairie Village community and maybe other schools.”

If you had one message you want everyone to know about your project and sexual assault what would it be?

“That Shawnee Mission East is a safe place to speak up, and I’d really like to build on that.”