For the last three years, we’ve been in the trenches addressing the aftermath of sexual assault. We learned about Title IX the hard way after our teenage daughter was raped and sodomized by a classmate on a public school fieldtrip. School districts’ failure to comply is amply documented by the advocacy nonprofit. Most schools don’t even know their responsibilities under Title IX, even though their federal funding depends on enforcing Title IX.
Never mind that schools are mandated under Title IX, a federal civil rights law, to provide students an education free from sexual harassment, unwelcome touching, sexual violence, and gender based discrimination. When the few courageous students report, school districts typically stonewall complaints by blaming and shaming students for “consensual” sexual activity (or resort to other tactics) to avoid liability, bad press, and lawsuits. Students themselves have come to view sexual harassment, unwelcome touching, and sexual violence in their schools as normative, despite the toll it takes on their emotional health and education. So parents pretend that sexual assault happens to other kids, not “good kids” like theirs. Families of elementary and secondary school students are in denial, terrified to imagine that their child could be assaulted (or might be in situation that could lead to assault).
Brave college survivors possess some maturity to come forward while K-12 students are struggling with an emerging sense of self. Prestigious institutions and high profile athlete perpetrators are appealing subjects. Campus sexual assault is a “sexier” topic. The reasons for ignoring the K-12 breeding ground are complex. According to all who monitor current research and reports from K-12 victims, “if we do not bring a serious focus to the problem of sexual harassment and assault in elementary and secondary schools, it will be nearly impossible to make real progress at any other level of education,” Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Vice President for Program at the National Women’s Law Center wrote.
Why did Lady Gaga and panelists overlook the fundamental connection between “The Breeding Ground” and “The Hunting Ground”? The K-12 breeding ground is to the hunting ground as germs are to infection, a connection I’ve shared several times with the Hunting Ground team. But how could this be? Do students turn into predatory monsters between the June of high school graduation and September when the assaults begin in the notorious red zone? Surely rampant sexual assault can’t be attributed to new-found freedom. After an hour-long panel on the pandemic of campus sexual violence, uninformed viewers would conclude that sexual assault originates when vulnerable freshmen arrive at college. In her TimesTalks panel appearance, Lady Gaga spoke about the secretive nature of sexual assault, but without disclosing a much larger secret– t he festering epidemic of sexual violence in The Breeding Ground, our K-12 schools. Her performance of ‘Till It Happens to You is an integral part of The Hunting Ground film documenting campus assault, and she recently appeared in a New York “ TimesTalks” panel alongside the film’s creators (director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering), her songwriter Dianne Warren, and NY Times journalist and panel moderator Frank Bruni to discuss the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses. Lady Gaga is rightly applauded for her brave efforts to support sexual assault victims. Originally appeared in The Huffington Post