Sexual assault: It could happen to me | Teen Advisory Board presents ‘The Hunting Ground’

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, March 9, 2016

By Madeleine Smallwood

Mercer Island High School junior

You are a junior or a senior in high school. Students are working hard to attain that freedom that is known as college. No parents, new friends and practically a new life.

Or so I thought, until my parents showed me “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses.

The film is made up of the stories of real life victims who were subject to this terrible crime. I vaguely knew that you have to be careful and not get yourself in dangerous positions.

But the girls in the video did not put themselves in dangerous positions. It hit home that the very same things that happened to the girls in the video could happen to me. But the most shocking part of the documentary wasn’t the fact that the girls were assaulted; the most shocking part was how it was handled.

When you go to college, you trust the college. College is supposed to help you grow and is supposed to be a safe place. The documentary clearly shows this is often not the case.

Can colleges be trusted to do the right thing?

All the stories had a consistent thread: the colleges did practically nothing about the incident. All the schools claim they take the issue “very seriously,” which is really code for, “we will support you if it is convenient for us.”

The victims were often made to feel as if it was their fault. Even when the victims could identify the guilty person, the attacker rarely faced consequences. One girl had a written confession from her attacker and it still wasn’t good enough.

Even when a person does face consequences, they are rarely severe. A short suspension is the most common. Colleges often under-report the number of sexual assaults on their campuses. Only recently have colleges such as Occidental and Swarthmore come under investigation about this problem.

This film was eye-opening for me and I strongly encourage students and parents to see it. People need to know that this is happening and what they can do about it because if we do not act, then no pressure will be put on colleges to make things better.

Event information

“The Hunting Ground” is showing at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 12 at the MIHS Performing Arts Center (9100 SE 42nd St.). A discussion will follow the film, including representatives from the University of Washington, King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, the city of Mercer Island and Mercer Island School District. This event was put together by the Mercer Island Library Teen Advisory Board and is sponsored by the Friends of the Mercer Island Library and the Mercer Island High School PTSA.

For more information, contact Carrie Bowman at the Mercer Island Library, 206–236–3537.