Author Spotlight
Libby Marsh
It was her fault. He secluded her. He manipulated her. But it was her fault.
Then-freshman Harper Fisher* was assaulted. But somehow she was the one being called a “slut” and a “whore” by his friends.
She had been talking to a guy — a senior — for a month. She went to his house with a group of friends. She trusted him, he was friends with her friends. It was OK, right? It was OK until he pulled her aside.
Have sex with me. She told him no, multiple times.
You’ve never done anything for me, and this is how you can show you love me. She never said she loved him.
He forced her down. He assaulted her.
She stopped talking for two months, only communicating with her mom or teachers when absolutely necessary.
“It made me feel awful [and] that I wasn’t a good person,” Harper said. “I kind of flipped it in my head, but it seemed like I was the bad person.”
Victims of sexual assault and harassment can be reluctant to report their stories to administration because of a lack of resources available to victims, a fear of not being believed and victim blaming, according to now-sophomore Harper and various other East students who are victims.
Harper was diagnosed with depression and anxiety shortly after the assault and is still on medication today. She was put into psychiatric childcare and was pulled out of school to see a therapist every week.
After the assault happened, she knew her mother, who also is a victim of sexual assault, would understand. Through hysterical tears, Harper told her what had happened.
But reporting to school administration was a different situation. The day after the assault Harper skipped school. That’s the only reason she reported her story to the school — for fear of an unexcused absence on her transcript.
When someone reports a case of sexual harassment or assault, the school’s administration will use Policy AC: the anti-discrimination and harassment policy, according to Principal Jason Peres. If the victim chooses to file a complaint, statements will be taken from the victim and then the school will investigate the situation. The outcome from there is decided on a case-by-case basis.
Peres urges students who are being assaulted or harassed to tell any trusted adult on the school campus. Every school employee is a mandatory reporter, meaning that they are legally required to report any instance where the safety of a student is concerned.
“If you’re a victim of what you consider sexual harassment, go to the nearest adult and report it to the nearest trusted adult, and we will find help,” Peres said.
No counselor at East specifically handles sexual violence or harassment cases, but all counselors and school social workers would be willing to help a victim, according to Peres.
“From my perspective, as a building principal, I don’t have any evidence that there’s been something to that level that has occurred on this campus,” Peres said.
Peres, however, acknowledges that sexual harassment and assault cases can be under-reported but believes that even one incident in the East community is a problem.
For Harper talking to her mom was hard, even knowing she would have her support. However, reporting her assault to the school was different story.
“I felt like people would think that I was lying about it, so to bring it up at all was a last resort,” Harper said.
She reported it to an associate principal, who then pulled her out of class for an hour to talk about what had happened. The principal also allowed Harper to sit in a separate room to calm down and communicated with her and her parents through the process.
However, the student who assaulted her got out-of-school suspension which fixes the problem only for a few days, according to Harper. She believes that a longer investigation process, more repercussions for the aggressor and increased support for the victims are needed — specifically someone who specializes in sexual assault cases.
Harper also thinks more needs to be done to make victims feel comfortable reporting such as posters and sexual assault hotlines. She remembers hearing a presentation about sexual assault in eighth grade — but that was it.
“The staff needs to have a better help resource for students that are going through that, and trying to make it seem as comfortable as possible to go to authorities and talk to them about it,” Harper said. “That was the biggest part for me. Originally, I wasn’t going to tell anybody about what happened.”
Harper isn’t the only victim of sexual abuse hesitant to report to the school. Now senior *Eleanor Turner was harassed from her freshman to junior year — all because of the size of her chest — and waited years to reported to administration.
Boys would add her to Snapchat group chats and make comments about how she’s “developed.”
They would gather in groups by the gym to wait for her to walk inside, ready to shout and bark at her. They would say her name creepily behind her in the halls, touch her inappropriately during passing periods and throw food at her in the lunchroom. Some even attempted to find her address.
“I’m just an object, I’m not anything special to be cared about,” Eleanor said.
By her junior year, Eleanor was being harassed every day, constantly through social media and in the hallways. She needed all of it to stop.
But she didn’t know who to talk to — or if they would believe her.
Despite district protocol, it took Eleanor a month of going from staff member to staff member telling the same story each time before she received help. It was only when her mom emailed Peres that something was done.
“It’s hard to talk about that stuff with administration, and I actually didn’t say anything about it till my junior year of high school, because I just didn’t feel like it would be very heard, or I’d be seen,” Eleanor said.
After the district was involved, the harassment died down but didn’t entirely stop. Eleanor believes the harassment only stopped when she started ignoring them and separating herself, not because of the school’s actions.
“It’s really hard to come out about that stuff, and I honestly only think [administration] gave them a slap on the wrist,” Eleanor said.
Eleanor believes that to fix this, sexual harassment and violence needs to be discussed more at an administrative level.
“[Peres] needs to talk about respecting the girls that are at this school, because no one’s gonna stop unless it’s told to them by another man,” Eleanor said.
Even now, Eleanor still questions Why? Why me?
“To this day, I don’t really know what I’ve done to get made fun of, but it puts that sort of toll on a person,” Eleanor said.
She has to remind herself that it’s not her fault.
“It’s very hard to love yourself,” Eleanor said.
Similarly, Harper spent months blaming herself for everything. She blamed herself when she was assaulted, and for every little thing after. Even a bad grade in a group project was her fault.
“It took a while for me to realize that I wasn’t the person who brings all the bad in the world,” Harper said.
Freshman *Jessica Walker is another victim of sexual harassment who has been followed and had rumors spread about her.
A guy that she hardly spoke to began telling all of his friends that he wanted to have sex with her. He would follow her around the school and chase after her if she tried to walk away. Punching and kicking her, angry that she wouldn’t talk to him.
But when her brother tried to defend her, her assaulter was was the one who got a restraining order against her.
“Getting your eyes open to the fact that it does happen a lot [is important], it happens to so many people, but people try not to believe it, or they don’t fully see it,” Jessica said.
Freshman *Stella Hughes was assaulted at age 9 by another female classmate and to this day she will jump when someone suddenly touches her. Even a friend jokingly touching her thigh brings her back to the vivid memory of the moment she was assaulted. It will occupy her mind for the rest of the day.
When she told her mom she brushed it off as “she’s weird” and Stella believes that when it comes to reporting sexual assault, she couldn’t handle the guilt of getting someone into serious trouble. Similarly, people tend to be careful when it comes to assault.
“People don’t like calling things what they are,” Stella said. “Especially when it comes to things that are borderline illegal I think people are very cautious.”
Sunflower House — a child abuse protection and prevention agency — education director Monica Cattau recommends that everyone have five trusted people to talk to about these incidents. This applies to everyone, not just those currently experiencing sexual violence, in case an incident occurs.
“Child safety is an adult responsibility,” Cattu said. “Everybody who is under 18 [should] understand that it’s an adult’s responsibility to keep you safe.”
Having five trusted people ensures that the situation will be handled, according to Cattau. At least one of the five adults should have the ability to find help and bring the situation to a stop. This can be parents, a counselor, a teacher, a grandparent or a friend’s parent.
Eleanor still urges anyone experiencing assault or harassment to report it to administration. Even if people make the victim out to be hysterical, still report it and bring evidence — screenshots, pictures and videos.
“All those women deserve apologies, and they deserve the most in the world,” Eleanor said.
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