Horrors of Reporting Sexual Harassment

The headline reads Student: Bus driver tried to enforce rules. But sometimes trying isn’t enough. And judging from the story, “rules” are not the only thing in question. It seems a little more like laws.

The news story itself is about a young woman who is involved in a criminal trial against male students who are accused of sexual assault, and the bus driver who is accused of criminal neglect by “ignoring the repeated abuses committed on the bus by three male students.” While the details of the alleged crime are spelled out, it is the tone of the attorneys in the article that is most disturbing. (In an update, Terry Burch has been cleared of criminal neglect charges, with an argument that only one complaint was filed.)

The attorneys are attempting to blame the young woman for her assault. They had another female student testify that the young woman was “friendly with at least one of the boys.” (Perhaps ignoring the fact that up to 89% of youth who had experienced sexual violence said it was committed against them by someone they knew.)

However, “Both girls testified the boys also harassed girls within school itself.” Attempting to normalize sexual assault, simply because harassment is prevalent within the school system, seems absurd. If anything, the culture of harassment that is inherent within the school system (both this district and most others) means that sexual assault should be more severe a crime.