I'm warning you upfront that this is very upsetting. This teen took her life after being sexually assualted while she was passed out at a party. As if that wasn't bad enough, her assailants took pictures of the act and shared them online. They went viral. Ultimately, the victim killed herself.
Thanks to Jesse Lyons for sharing.
http://news.yahoo.com/3-teens-arrested-assault-girls-suicide-024221519.html
With this type of thing in mind, I'm sharing with you a link I plan to share with my own son in the next year or so. It's a letter another blogger wrote to her 11 and 8 year old sons about stopping rape.
Stopping Rape
I think this is a really good idea to reach out to your kids to help explain to them about serious issues like sexual assault, rape, and suicide. I think some parts were a bit too graphic for only an 8 and 11 year old, and i really thought how she explained how good sex feels was incredibly inappropriate because thats not the point of explaining sex to your children, it should be with the intent to explain how babies are made, not that its primarily for pleasure. Comparing sex, and even saying its better than things like snow days and ice cream is not what a child should be hearing, i feel like this is almost a post to promote sex to children, and it takes away from the point of when you should or should not touch someone.
ReplyDeleteLauren Kahn
ReplyDeleteI saw this story on the news a couple of days ago and I felt the need to cry. This story was terribly sad and no girl or for that matter person deserves to be treated this way, ever. Kids these days are most susceptible to cyber bullying and should be warned of the effects of it very early in age. As for the issues of sexual assault and rape, I completely agree that kids need to understand the severity of them however I agree with Janet, I thought some parts brought up in this link were very graphic for younger kids. As Janet mentioned kids at that age should not be thinking of sex as something of pleasure. Yes, they should understand what some consequences should be but besides that I feel as though they are to young for it to be compared to ice cream.
This letter reminds me of the program in the Women's Center. I believe its called the Men's Project. It helps them to understand violence against women better and even issues within their gender that often aren't spoken about. During Take Back the Night, they explain they journey, what they have learned and how it has changed their life. This letter is a great way to start stopping rape by beginning early, and using the younger generation to be educated about the subject, to instill at a young age the damage it causes to society and how wrong it is. I think the middle schools should start implementing something like this in health education courses.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Selig
ReplyDeleteThe prevalence of rape and sexual harassment in our youth's culture is startling and concerning. What is even more worrisome is the fact that the kids committing these crimes are cavalier enough about it to post evidence of their deviance on social media. The posting of this evidence is a big indicator of our society's lack of empathy. These kids are so numb to what they are doing that they really think nothing of hurting others and how their acts can change the future of other people. We have a big task ahead of us, in needing to instill a sense of caring and compassion in our children. If we are not able to get ahold of this problem, the number of tragedies will only rise.
I completely agree with the above posts about the appropriateness of the article. I do think that it is necessary for a child to be informed about sex but I think it should be presented in a way that is more discouraging than promoting. Obviously, society's ways have changed and the parents cannot be naiive about their children having sex, but I think this article should be altered to be more geared toward an 8 year old. At this time I feel as if the article is worded and have comparisons appropriate for a tween and not so much an 8 year old.
ReplyDelete-Karlyn Tupper
The letter was great and I believe children should absolutely be informed about sex. There is no reason to keep it a secret because the more informed children are, the better decisions they will be able to make in the future. It's awful to hear of a girl who was so mentally destroyed by a sexual assault that she committed suicide. Perhaps if more children were better informed about sex and its consequences from a young age, less incidences like this would take place.
ReplyDeleteThis story was tragic to read about and it is so sad how cyber bullying gets to the point where someone feels the need to commits suicide. I think it is very important to learn about cyber bullying and rape, perhaps that would help and lessen the number of times events like this takes place. In addition, if young adults were more aware of the severe consequences of their actions of cyber bullying, and sexual assault in this case, then they would think twice before doing anything. However, I agree and think the letter has taken it too far. It is vital for young adults to learn about rape and how to prevent it from happening, but when she starts describing how sex is 500 times better than getting a new pair of shoes and so on, I believe, is way to inappropriate for an 8 year old.
ReplyDelete