Are Iowa high schools doing enough to teach sex assault prevention?

Attempts to educate high school students about the topic of sexual assault can be cursory, ineffective or even avoided by school leaders, interviews with teachers, administrators and students from 18 Iowa school districts show.

As a result, some students say they don't know what constitutes sexual assault, how to prevent it or where to get help if they're assaulted.

'I have had to go out and do my own research on it, and that shouldn't be the case,' said Harley Atchison, 17, a junior at Pella High School.

She said she has no memory of any sexual assault prevention education in school.

'For how large of a problem sexual assault is, there is nothing being done about it early on. Many girls especially are not aware of the dangers they will be exposed to once they leave the comfort of their own home.'

The interviews conducted by IowaWatch revealed that the problem stems, in part, from too little time for the topic when so many other things need to be covered in health classes. In some schools, the education is offered only in the ninth grade. In others, it's not provided at all.

Des Moines Valley High is one of the schools doing without.

'We do not have a course in place that has curriculum specifically tied to sexual assault,' said Principal Tim Miler. Why? A lack of time and course materials.

UNSPOKEN TOPIC

Sexual violence is a serious concern on college campuses that await students after high school.

In one of the largest college surveys ever on sexual assault and misconduct — a 2015 report from the Association of American Universities — 23 percent of female college students said they had experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact, from kissing and touching to rape.

At the University of Iowa, results of a campus climate survey released in 2016 found that one in five female undergraduates who participated in the survey reported being raped since enrolling at the university.

According to the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network, about 70 percent of all sexual assault cases happen to children ages 17 and under — that's high school age and younger.

More effective education about sexual assault would teach young people about healthy relationships, break stereotypes and expose people to what sexual violence really is, said Kathryn Rittenhour, a Rape Victim Advocacy Program volunteer in Iowa City.

A UI graduate student in sociology, she often speaks in Iowa City-area schools about sexual assault prevention.

'Then students may be able to assist someone who has been a victim of sexual violence or they could be able to recognize what abuse and violence looks like in their own lives,' she said.

Rittenhour said misconceptions about sexual violence are common among Iowa high school students and teachers.

'A lot of young people don't have much exposure to education about healthy relationships and sexual violence,' she said. 'And unfortunately there are a lot of myths and stereotypical images in media which get perpetuated in schools and classroom that can be really harmful.'

Cecilia Roudabush, a health teacher at North Central Junior High School in North Liberty, said such things as demeaning music lyrics and videos are teaching children the wrong things. She points to videos portraying women ogled by men, which she shows in class to make a point with students.

'They don't realize what some of the material is promoting,' she said.

Kathryn Herdliska, 17, a junior at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, said drilling into students that sexual assault is not OK could help assault victims know they are not alone.

'They need to know that they have support and they need to know what to do next,' Herdliska said. 'So many sexual assault victims go unnoticed and so many cases aren't put into action, and it's really sad.'

Education is aimed at boys, too. But Prairie High student Andre Vongpanya, 16, said he doesn't know if he would have benefitted from more attention in class to sexual assault prevention. The reason, the junior said, is that he has had little education about the topic.

'The only education we ever got was a one-day presentation in ninth grade,' he said.

Taylor Grider, 16, an Iowa City West High School junior, said she took one trimester of health during her freshman year. 'I don't think we even really touched the subject of assault that much. I don't even remember talking about it,' she said.

Students are not the only ones who think this. West High health teacher Kathy Bresnahan said the topic should be brought up in more than freshman health class.

'Juniors and seniors need to hear about it at their age much more,' she said. 'The downfall of this curriculum is that it is just for ninth-graders and there is so much health information to go over. And everything is important, but we have such little time.'

Brooke Timmerman, 18, a senior at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, said she fears that scant education about sexual assault prevention makes students more vulnerable.

'When students aren't educated on sexual assault, they feel lost when it happens to them or a friend; they don't know exactly what it is, how to stop it, and how to report it,' she said.

DISTRICTS RESPOND

Despite concerns over a lack of sexual assault prevention education, several school administrators said the amount of education on the topic is appropriate.

Many districts share in a partnership with the University of Northern Iowa Center for Violence Prevention, implementing a program called Mentors in Violence Prevention. The districts include Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown and Cedar Falls.

Jen Gomez, director of student services and equity education in Sioux City, said each school in the district has trained adult advisers who teach lessons to ninth-graders.

This year, the district's health teachers hosted a viewing of 'Audrie & Daisy' for ninth grade students. This movie follows two teenage girls through being sexually assaulted to dealing with harassment from fellow students, eventually leading to attempted suicide.

'After the viewing, school counselors, mental health therapists and domestic violence and sexual assault specialists and advocates led small group discussions with the students,' Gomez said.

Other districts not involved with the UNI program are making strides in addressing sexual violence, said Bruce Amendt, associate superintendent of the Johnston school district. A police officer, for instance, talks with students there once a year in health classes about what to do if a sexual assault occurs.

Administrators at other districts who were interviewed said they are not able to spend much time on assault prevention education.

'Classes are only one trimester, so we are not able to allocate a lot of time to assault, but do try to have a couple of lessons on it,' said Sue Chelf, health curriculum coordinator in the Iowa City school district.

Students who were interviewed said they were advocating improvements at their schools.

Kennedy High's Timmerman said passing Erin's Law in Iowa would help. The law, promoted by childhood sexual assault survivor Erin Merryn, would require public schools to provide a program for sexual assault prevention education. Iowa is among the states where the legislation has been introduced but not passed.

'It would give educators resources on how to teach about sexual assault, and it would create an environment that is more vigilant towards sexual assault,' she said.

This story was produced by the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org, a nonprofit, online news website that collaborates with Iowa news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting.