Euclid High School

Today was a real eye opener. I went with one of Mr. Leslie's colleagues, Brian Dodyk, to Euclid High School to do educational seminars on sexual violence and prevention. Walking into Euclid made me extremely appreciative of Hawken and our community. Firstly, school began at 7:30 which was hard. Secondly, no one was able to leave the classroom without a hall pass. In addition to these small changes, the atmosphere overall was extremely different and almost tangible. When Mr. Dodyk began speaking, almost every student had their cell phones out and there was constant chatter throughout the conversation. While this is disrespectful to any speaker, this one in particular should have demanded their attention considering how affected every individual is by sexual assault, either directly or by someone you love.


Below are pictures of Mr. Dodyk with a health class from Euclid High School and the sheet that he passed out to each class.

 His presentation centered around what rape is, who is affected, and how to be an active bystander. This was a large topic to cover in just 50 minutes and Mr. Dodyk did an excellent job. I will summarize below some important facts.

MYTH #1: Most rapes occur between two strangers.
REALITY: most rapes happen between two people who know each other, often romantic partners.

MYTH #2: Rape is an action of uncontrollable desire.
REALITY: Rape is NOT an action of uncontrollable desire. Rape is an act of desires very controllable: power and control.
-Many people falsely believe that male on male rape in prison is due to the fact that there are no women available. Although this conclusion would suggest that sexuality is locational, which is false. An example Brian gives is that he is a heterosexual male who liked girls throughout middle school but then attends an all male high school. That doesn't mean that he will now be homosexual. So, this further goes to say that many men end up in prison because of power and control issues (stemming from theft to murder) and placing all of those men in a single area will further power struggles and can result in rape. 98% of men who rape other men are heterosexual. Out of those men, 90% of them have women who have consensual sex with a woman on the side.



OTHER FACTS

-Less than 2% of rapists go to jail. This is due to two different things. Firstly, rape is THE MOST unreported major crime. This is due to many factors including the fact that many survivors fear that no one will believe them, they are embarrassed, and could be threatened. Secondly, even if survivors can get their case to court, many times the case is overthrown. When a person is raped, they only have 3-4 days to get examined at the hospital and usually, they have to have NOT bathed, used the restroom, or eaten (basically anything that could alter their bodies). Even if they go directly to the hospital after being assaulted, defense attorneys use the claim that their client and the survivor merely had consensual sex. Sexual assault is hard to prove. In addition to this, the average rapist only goes to prison for 2 years and sometimes less because of good behavior.