Pepper spray, knives that fit in our purses, tasers in our pockets. These are all things women do now to keep themselves safe. We know things to defend ourselves that we shouldn’t have too. That no one should know. Don’t walk alone even in the day, make sure our hair is short to throw them off, and remember to not wear anything to reveling, is what they tell us. 

Women and young kids are taught this stuff every day. We hear on the TV almost every day, about how a girl was assaulted walking down the street, trying to get home in time for dinner. How a little boy was taken right out of their yard, when they were playing games. “I’m scared to turn on the news now. I think I’m going to hear another story about a ring, you know. They say that their looking for the people missing, but then their case goes cold.” said an anonyms student from BDHS. “I would never walk down the street without at least one of my tracking apps on. Lord knows what would happen the one time I didn’t have it on.  

The BDHS staff interviewed another student, that also wants to stay anonymous, they expressed their feelings on the situation that women face as well as what they believe they can do to help. “We could try actually trying to help the girls and boys that come forward. I once heard a story about a young girl that came forward and was told to keep quite, because they boy was on the football team had “a bright life ahead of him”. Instead of locking him up they suspended her and let him go free.” they said. 

“I know I’m a guy but its still scary you know,” said another anonymous student. “Like will people even look at me the same way if something like that happened to me? I once heard one of my friends make a joke about rape and literally no one did anything to educate him. I was absolutely disgusted.” they went on to say. 

We need to protect our people and not let their abusers go. In certain cases, when women protect themselves, they get charged and the assaulter walks free. We get told that we have equal pay and that we have laws that protect us, we don’t need more. We need to stop staying silent and tell people. Make them listen to us.