Context for the Excerpt

The excerpt I have attached below is from an essay I submitted for my Dual Credit English 1302 class. It was assigned with us with freedom of topic, required an annotated bibliography, and had to be at least five pages. As you can see in the PDF below, I expanded well beyond those minimums, as the topic is one I am very passionate about. The topic of Sexual Assault was a topic I wanted to write about because one of my friends had a rattling experience with a boy at her school that left me angry and disappointed that the legal system refused to hold her assaulter accountable. I wanted to know why and how school districts in this day and age still support the assaulter over the victim, and in my excerpt and full essay below, I explore those questions.

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Excerpt

“Institutions refusing to take action, are leaving young women exposed to sexual violence
and hindering them from achieving an equal education as compared with their male counterparts.
Sexual assault predators start their conquest of women in high school, continue on at
universities and colleges, and then they carry it forward into the real world, exposing all
generations of women to such victimization. Sexual assault knows no boundaries, as it does not
occur in just the South or North, nor only the East or West; it happens in every state, affecting
every community, in some way shape or form (Sexual Assault on College Campuses, Broder). It
has taken place at Cornell, Duke, U of Alabama, U of Texas, UCLA, Stanford, U of Minnesota,
U of Chicago and at all the places of learning in between (Pending Cases Currently Under
Investigation, Campus Sexual Assault Under Investigation). The problem will continue to
perpetuate and victimize future generations of women unless something more is done.

Many people do not realize how seriously sexual assault can affect their loved ones until
it does. This realization struck me when one of my long-time friends, who has come to be more
like a sister to me, went to a party and was sexually assaulted by a boy in her theater class. I
remember picking her up the day after it happened and being at a loss for words as to how
someone could do such a horrible thing to her, but then the loss of words turned to anger. Who
thought they could do something like that and get away with it? What type of person thought he
was entitled to do such an action without consequence? I couldn’t fathom the idea. As more time
passes, and I hear similar stories from my friends and dig into more research, it has become more
clear that the reason why they think they can get away with it is that more often than not, they do
get away with it.

The boy who sexually assaulted my friend did get away with it. Even after admitting to it,
he was still enabled in his actions by receiving the lead in the school play at their high school.
After reporting the sexual assault, my friend was threatened by a teacher at the school “to stop
talking about [the sexual assault] if she wants to get invited back” to the theater program.
Shockingly, this same teacher thought the perpetrator was just “a troubled kid” who “was in love
with her,” as if those are valid reasons to acquit the behavior. The teacher never reported it to the
administration even though that is the protocol. Ultimately, the director threatened my friend
with removal from the theater program. The response to the situation was to punish the victim,
not the perpetrator, which perpetuates the idea that he can get away with it. Following these
threats, my friend’s family tried to get in contact with the school to address the situation. The
school and the district just ignored her family’s calls and emails making it challenging to hold
them accountable for the assault and threats from the teacher in the theater program. Shortly
after, my friend withdrew from that school district and enrolled elsewhere. The sad reality is that
was not the first of such incidents to occur at that school, and unless someone intervenes, it
won’t be the last.”

To read the full paper, I have attached the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ElWgZF4sua-dQmfSmAoB3m9BjRG6A4Q0GMgk2CQA71c/edit?usp=sharing