From the category archives:

education and schools

Disabled Student Assaulted on School Bus; Bus Driver Watches and Doesn’t Respond

by Cara August 6, 2010

Trigger Warning for graphic descriptions of violence against people with disabilities, school violence, and victim-blaming. As evidenced by a recent post, violence of all kinds is a major problem in schools, and school administrations not only frequently fail to respond appropriately to said violence, they’re also often a direct part and/or cause of the problem. [...]

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Lawsuit Claims School Used Rape Victim as “Bait”

by Cara August 2, 2010

Trigger Warning for rape apologism/denialism and discussions of sexual violence and rape culture. School is supposed to be a safe place for students to learn and interact with their peers. But as far too marginalized persons know, schools frequently present an environment that is the exact opposite, from being sites of sexualized gender-based violence, to [...]

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Group Suggests Age Appropriate Sex Education? Time to Freak Out.

by Cara June 17, 2010

Well, here we go again. Every few months or so, some public official or organization makes a common sense observation that sex education is largely useless unless we start it early, and thus expresses support for age appropriate sex education for kids as soon as they start school. Cue the outrage, as a variety of [...]

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Insufficient Evidence

by Cara May 19, 2010

Trigger Warning for post and links for descriptions gang rape, as well as rape apologism and denialism by the judicial system. Blogging about the issues that I blog about can take a lot out of a person. Specifically, they sometimes manage to take a lot out of me. Consequently, there are some posts that I [...]

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Rape Myths Lead to No Justice for Sexual Assault Victims on College Campuses

by Cara March 5, 2010

Trigger Warning for discussions of sexual violence and rape apologism. You have quite likely read on other blogs about part two of the Center for Public Integrity’s report into sexual violence on U.S. college and university campuses. I wrote about part one of the report, A Culture of Secrecy, back when it was released. And [...]

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New Report About Sexual Violence on College Campuses

by Cara December 10, 2009

The Center for Public Integrity has released a three-part report on sexual violence on college campuses, and the response of administrators to such allegations. Part one talks about the culture of secrecy surrounding sexual assault proceedings. Part two talks about the barriers to reporting sexual assault on campus, and how such reports are actively discouraged. [...]

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13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Classmates Spread Nude Photos

by Cara December 2, 2009

Trigger Warning for discussions of suicide, descriptions of non-consensual sexual conduct, victim-blaming and slut-shaming The Tampa Bay St. Petersburg Times has printed the truly gut-wrenching, tragic story of a 13-year-old girl named Hope Witsell, who committed suicide after a photograph of her breasts, which she sent to a boy’s cell phone, was forwarded all over [...]

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Support Sex-Positive Sex Education

by Cara November 13, 2009

Scarleteen is, in my view, the absolute best sex education website out there. And while I can’t claim to be entirely impartial about that assessment — I know Heather, Scarleteen’s founder, and also received a free sex education training through the site this summer — I can say that it’s an assessment I’ve held since [...]

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Attorney Uses “Boys Will Be Boys” Defense in Alleged Sexual Assault

by Cara October 16, 2009

Last week, a freshman at the University of Maryland allegedly gained access to a dorm that was not his own, entered a female student’s room and woke her up by trying to kiss her. He also twice tried to put his hands down her shorts. When the victim screamed, he allegedly ran across the hallway [...]

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Edmonton Teacher Fired Over His Gender Identity

by Cara October 3, 2009

A trans man who worked as a substitute teacher in Edmonton, Alberta was fired by a Catholic school upon telling them about his plans to transition: Jan Buterman is praised in a letter of dismissal for his teaching abilities, but told his gender change from woman to man is not aligned with the teachings of [...]

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