Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes, that person is a child. While this is being said, only 25 out of 1,000 predators will end up in prison.
Sexual Assault Awareness Week (SAAW) is observed in April and celebrated at ETHS during the third week of April. The theme for 2025 SAAW/SAAM is “Together We Act, United We Change, emphasizing community efforts to prevent sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.” .
Sexual Assault is defined as a person touching another person in a sexual manner without consent. Sexual assault can also be one person forcing another person to sexually touch them without their permission. The purpose of this month and week is to raise awareness and educate people on how to recognize and prevent assault. The goal is to increase public knowledge and education on sexual assault and the impact it has on individuals and the community. This week is also to acknowledge and show support for survivors. It is important for those affected to know they have resources and support available to them. If there is someone who has endured the trauma of sexual assault, there are safe environments and communities for them to call upon to get help.
Another goal of SAAW is to promote healthy relationships and provide tools that foster them. A few key terms to educate students on are consent and bystander intervention. A healthy relationship is described with words such as respect, trust, open communication and safety. Consent is when there is mutual permission or agreement between both parties. In a relationship, that would include everyone involved verbally and consciously being able to make an informed decision. Most importantly, their decision is respected and abided by. Bystander intervention is the awareness and skills to intervene in a situation where someone else needs help. In a cycle or pattern where sexual assault is present, learning and talking about consent and bystander intervention could be ways to reduce the number of future assaults.
The ETHS community is all invited to attend, students and teachers with their classes to sign up for workshops. There will be SAAW workshops held on 4/23. Educating our ETHS population on this topic is in hopes to prevent sexual assault from happening in the first place. The aim for the ETHS student body is to create an environment where everyone feels safe, treated with respect and demonstrates equality.
