By Gillian Fuller, Allure
It's often noted that around one in five college women experiences some form of sexual assault in their time at school. But according to a recent report by the Associated Press, school sexual violence often begins earlier than college—way earlier.
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AP conducted a year-long investigation of state education records and
federal crime data to identify the frequency of sexual assault reports
among primary- and secondary-school students. The investigation, which
compiled data from the four-year period between fall 2011 and spring
2015, found there were a total of 17,000 official reports of sexual
assault by students in grades K-12. That’s approximately 4,250 cases
reported per year, the majority of which involved female victims under
the age of 14.
Though the AP found that students between 10 and 14
were the most likely to report a sexual assault, younger students are
far from immune: Some five percent of all the assaults reported featured
victims between the ages of five and six. While the most common form of
assault was unwanted fondling, one in five of the students who were
assaulted were sodomized, raped, or penetrated with an object.
What's
more, the AP states that the true rate of sexual violence by students
in primary and middle schools is likely much higher than this data
suggests. Only about 10 to 30 percent of sexual assaults are actually reported,
and some states don’t even track instances of sexual violence (there's
no federal requirement that elementary and middle schools do so). Those
that do record instances of sexual violence often have different
criteria for what constitutes assault. And when sexual violence does
occur, administrators often feel compelled to sweep it under the rug or
mischaracterize it as “bullying” or “hazing."
“No principal wants
their school to be the rape school, to be listed in the newspaper as
being investigated," Dr. Bill Howe, a former K-12 teacher in
Connecticut, explained. "Schools try to bury it. It’s the courageous
principal that does the right thing.”
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Kristen Houser, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center's
chief public affairs officer, believes that this mislabeling and
underreporting has to do with an unwillingness to see kids as sexually
violent. "When you get into youthful offending it’s very difficult for
people to accept that children or teenagers would be involved in this
behavior," she told Huffpost.
Given that student acts of sexual violence are an issue long before
kids get to college, though, it's important that elementary and middle
schools address the issue head-on — including by providing education
about consent and agency. "We really want people to look at this report,
take it seriously and recognize that schools have an obligation to
maintain safe learning environments under Title IX, just like universities do,” Houser added.
