The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault has just published a preliminary, extremely depressing report about sexual and physical violence experienced by NYC high school students. Based on more than 1,000 student surveys conducted at four high schools, they found that 16.2% of students had already experienced some kind of sexual violence – keep in mind that almost all of these students are 18 or younger!

In a way, the most disturbing result for me was that 14% had experienced sexual violence from someone they were dating. I tend to cherish the belief – apparently actually the illusion – that the current generation is growing up with more respect for women and less likelihood of finding sexual violence acceptable. But almost 7% of respondents had been raped by their partners in the last year, and that doesn’t suggest any kind of increasing respect for everyone’s right to have sex only by choice.

Its depressing to realize that one major part of the solution is better sex ed, sex ed that includes education about the unacceptability of sexual violence, but that good sex ed is still so hard to come by in public schools. If you’re a New Yorker, you can advocate that your State Senator pass the Healthy Teens Act next year (see here to find out more about it and how it wasn’t passed by the NY State Senate for the FOURTH year in a row), which would at least create a start on getting comprehensive sex ed offered to NY teenagers. I know I’ve linked to it before, but please check out this report from Legal Momentum that demonstrates how abstinence-only sex ed curriculum tend to reinforce victim-blaming and gender stereotypes that encourage sexual violence.

The NYC Sexual Assault Alliance provides a discreet, pocket-sized map for teenagers that has the locations of health service providers and rape crisis centers that they can turn to for help – a great resource, but these kinds of information shouldn’t substitute for repeated, wide-spread, peer-to-peer and teacher-to-student and parent-to-child discussions of why sexual assault and dating violence are wrong. Providing information to survivors is never enough, as important as it is. We need to be changing the attitudes that tolerate sexual assualt, and doing so requires talking about it.

There are great examples of teen peer-education programs that are combating violence among teenagers – check out the STAR (Students Taking Action for Respect) program run by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault or the Teen Voices program run by a crisis center in Michigan. Support these programs wherever you find them, and try to get their messages into any school systems you live in or work with. Thinking about freedom from sexual assault as part of reproductive justice can help leverage the resources of reproductive health organizations to combat dating violence among teenagers and college students, so if you do reproductive health work, start asking if your organization or your peer mentoring group includes anti-sexual violence lessons. The New Jersey Teen Prevention Education Program, for instance, has integrated sexual violence prevention into their broader sexual health education, focusing on the need for clear partner communication in every aspect of a dating relationship.

I came across this poster campaign in googling teen sexual violence education – I like the values Date Safe is promoting and I love this poster.

As a final note, it changes the landscape of what colleges and universities have to do to prevent sexual assault and to support survivors of sexual assault if many of their students are arriving with a history of abusing or being abused. It is important that information like this survey be brought to the attention of your campus administrators – are they prepared for the possibility that 10 or 20% of their incoming class might already be sexual assault survivors or perpetrators? (A compilation of recent studies of sexual violence among teenagers by the NYC Sexual Assault Alliance found lower numbers of assaults in surveys conducted elsewhere in the nation, but even nationwide these surveys suggest that around 10% of teens report having experienced sexual violence.)

Cross-posted at the Repro Health Hub.