I have heard many people talk about how much they loved high school. They can't wait to visit old teachers, old friends from high school, go back for the homecoming football game, and I can't relate. My high school experience was filled with misogyny, distrust, and fighting for my female classmates.

My school was nearly 4,000 students and centered in a rich suburban primarily white town in central Indiana. Some of the teachers were great, but most did not want to be there. They turned a blind eye to the misogynistic things the male students said and did, like when I witnessed a fellow male classmate openly tell a girl that she owed him sexual favors, as for what I am not sure. When I stepped into the school, I was pushed into a whole new world taken over by a culture of drugs, alcohol, and sexual assault.

Throughout my high school years I saw this rape culture festering, but I never really thought anything about it. I didn't know it wasn't a normal thing, like hearing of someone new getting sexually assaulted at a party every weekend wasn't something that the average American high schooler hears about every Monday. It wasn't until my senior year when something really shifted for me.

We have an annual fundraiser for Riley Children's Hospital, which includes a male pageant. Typically the tickets sell out fairly quickly and everyone talks about it for the weeks leading up to it. The contestants are senior boys and the winner is crowned "Mr. Royal," as the school mascot is "The Royals."

I had not paid much attention to the Mr. Royal news before the competition but as I was waiting in line to get in, one of my friends told me that one particular boy was a contestant. Now, we all know this kind of boy. He was known as being creepy, he flirted with younger girls and made girls feel uncomfortable, and everyone knew not to add him on Snapchat or you'd receive unwarranted pictures and he'd ask for them back…and he was accused of raping a girl.

The police report of this alleged sexual assault was a known thing in the school, and it did not surprise anyone when they heard it. After the reporting, the girl was harassed so much by his friends that she transferred to another school. When the school originally was informed about the issue, they suggested that she change her routes to classes so as to not see him in the hallway. She even had to file a protective order against him.

When I heard this information, around twenty girls and I rallied together, determined to make a change. We contacted news stations, participated in interviews, and took to social media. I knew this would not be enough, though, so I encouraged other people to file Title IX complaints with the school so we could not just make people aware of the situation, but actually pressure the administration to change. The federal Office of Civil Rights has since launched an investigation into the school.

This is not the first instance of sexual assault by male students at the school or the last. Only months after, a student was assaulted while getting dressed after a track meet. While the news stations said the assault was "sexual in nature", the rumor around school was that the student was sodomized with a water bottle. This concept of belittling sexual assault and rape is not a result of the outlet itself, it is the result of how the school wishes to portray sexual assault.

Hamilton Southeastern desperately needs to address the rape culture within its walls.

The administration has the power to provide useful and impactful education on consent, but it simply doesn't. This environment, where rape is not taken seriously by adults, translates to a desensitized student body, where students like me are few and far between. This makes it even harder for the women who experience sexual assault to be heard and supported, not only by the administration but by the people she walks past in the hallway, eats with at the lunch table, and sits next to at the Mr. Royal competition.

While I know that rape culture in any high school cannot be changed with a snap of the fingers, the implications of not addressing it head-on creates a hostile environment, to which I can attest to. It is a subject that is difficult to speak about, but being a part of an environment where rape is not seen as wrong is even harder.

There are so many things we learn in high school - learning to be okay with rape shouldn't be one of them.