We need to protect our girls. A saying we’ve all heard a thousand times and an action never truly acted upon. Sexual harassment and assault on college campuses all over America is an epidemic with seemingly no cure. We need to protect our girls because no girl should feel unprotected by her school. No girl should have to miss class due to high levels of mental stress caused by sexual assault. No girl should have to be too afraid to leave her room in fear of coming face to face with her attacker. Sexual assault is not just something that affects the body of the victim. Sexual assault leaves a trail of destruction in its’ wake. A trail of destruction in which the victim is left to clean up herself.
Anxiety, depression, and PTSD are all some of the after effects a victim may experience from being sexually harassed and/or assaulted. When we do not protect our girls, we tell them that their humanity and dignity is not important. We tell them that their feelings are not valid. When this happens our society as a whole is affected negatively. We lose brilliant minds and talent. We lose strong female leaders with hearts full of compassion that have the potential to bring peace. We lose caring mothers who mold the next generation.
So apathy and indifference towards rape survivors and victims not only destroys them, but it makes our world a very ugly place to live. With a statistic as disgusting as 1 in 4 college females are the victims of sexual assault every year in America , it is an anomaly as to why attackers are allowed to walk free even though substantial evidence has been provided proving their guilt. In order to protect their outside reputation, many college campuses do not report rape to the government and do not do anything to protect the victim.
So when did reputation and money become more important than the dignity and humanity of women? Why are we telling women that they are not as important as money? Has our society really stooped so low as to only pretend to care about sexual assault victims when we really don’t? We need to protect our girls because it is morally and ethically right. Because no woman should lose the chance of a beautiful life because someone was told that it is okay to rape and then can get away with it.
