April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and this year, MC’s ATHENA club has put together a week of bringing awareness to sexual assault survivors. Starting with questions during the morning announcements, and the opportunity to answer those questions during both lunches, a teal day, a twin day, and a bake sale to end the week. Teal is the color that represents sexual assault awareness month, along with twin-day showing students that no one is alone.
ATHENA partnered with Alice Paul House in the fall of 2023, to help bring awareness of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in February. Alice Paul House and ATHENA shared some ideas for how to raise sexual assault awareness in our school, one of the many ideas Alice Paul House gave them was drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.
ATHENA partnered with Mrs. Bauer’s students to draw on the sidewalks. Although it rained most of the day for the chalk drawings, it held off for a little bit allowing time to make the designs. And after school, it rained, but one is still present and it said “You are strong.”
The questions during lunch were important educational questions. For instance, ‘What’s the number you can call if you’ve been sexually assaulted?’ The answers varied. The National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1-800-656-HOPE(4673) was the answer, although other answers were also correct. 911, Alice Paul House’s 724-349-4444 and, Safe2Say were also correct, students who submitted those were added in the drawing for the prize. Many students participated in answering the questions, as well as the theme days.
According to RAINN, every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. 1 out of 6 women and 1 in 33 men are victims of a complete or attempted rape or sexual assault in their lifetime. Mrs. Stadler, the ATHENA club advisor said, “Tough issues like sexual assault can be difficult to talk about, but if we don’t talk about them, it can seem as though they are not happening. By sharing information about Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we hope to educate young people about the resources available to get help and to create a dialogue within our school community that helps survivors feel supported.” Just as they wanted students are learning more about awareness.
