Op-ed from the Monadnock Ledger Transcript

You are with us, or you are silencing us. 

Last summer, my work with End Sexual Violence on Campus picked up speed rapidly after analyzing results from a student-conducted survey on harassment and sexual violence in the ConVal community. There is a huge problem with sexual violence in our community, and it shouldn’t be a surprise at all. The culture of sexual harassment, abuse, exploitation, and violence is frequently discussed in the realms of Hollywood with the #metoo movement; on college campuses and in the media industry. Perhaps due to the nature of the discussion, or the long-standing history of our society’s urge to silence these voices and paint a prettier picture than the truth, nobody seems to be asking the deeper question: where does it start?

This question and the subsequent research into loopholes in our state legislation, testimony from students about our community culture, and personal experience serve as the foundation of the work that the group and I have been doing over the past year. The same breed of dark, deeply-rooted sexual violence that exists in Hollywood and at colleges lives right here, in our seemingly harmless rural town. It is the kindergarten classrooms and the high school locker rooms, the health class itineraries and Friday night games, that this seed is nurtured and concealed and allowed to prosper into the ugly and damaging culture of sexual violence that we see in the adult world.

From the ground up, we have outlined specific ways in which our town and state community can play a role in uprooting the rape culture that raises us, beginning with the curriculum for consent in our schools all the way up to the standard in which we report sexual violence as minors to the state. Our initial plan was to host a series of 24 events in April of 2020; speakers, trainings, workshops, movie screenings, letter-writing campaigns, artists, and activists were on the calendar. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, we had to cancel our month of action; but the group continues to be very active. Our website has been up for eight months, we’ve produced a podcast, our goals have been circulated on printed flyers, our social media accounts have stayed active providing resources for our followers, an email chain has been established, our list of contacts with community activists and change-makers lengthens with every new initiative, and we’ve had the chance to speak to the offices of Rep. Annie Kuster and other state legislators about our demands. Our experience working in this town is something that I never could’ve imagined for this group, and as a relatively newborn one, it speaks levels about where we have left to go.

But despite the unparalleled amounts of support and echoed pain that we receive from community members in our schools, hospitals, establishments, and legislature, none of our goals have been accomplished. So it is here, in the comfortable inaction, that my frustration lies. 

It is easy to dismiss our group as young and inexperienced, so I will entertain that narrative. Perhaps we are short-sighted; is it not short-sighted of a health administrator to suggest to a group of young girls that, to escape a car with a teen drunk-driver, they ask the driver to pull over so that they can engage in sexual intercourse? Perhaps our town is an exception to deeply-rooted rape cultures; is it exceptional for our seventh-grade health curriculum to include teaching boys about wet dreams and masturbation while only teaching girls ineffective catchphrases like “if I wanted to get pawed I’d get a dog” to adapt and react to the sexual misbehavior of young men? Even further, consult data from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, taken directly from a sample of 581 ConVal students. This report found that 37.8 percent of students in the survey - 220 students total - had sexual intercourse; 21.8% of the sexually active population reported their experiences were non-consensual. That’s at least 48 ConVal students who reported non-consensual sexual experiences in just one survey. 

I look at my peers and our community collaborators with an overwhelming amount of respect and appreciation. We are brave enough to contest this system of silencing and actively work towards a generation of ConVal students that understands that their body is their own, that they have a right to their boundaries, that reporting is about them and not the institution that wishes to hide their report, that their clothing has nothing to do with their decision to consent, that their assault is not their fault and that they are ultimately heard and uplifted by their community. 

Our group of 16-to-19-year-olds has exposed a wound within this community that exists in every community, a product of centuries-long neglect of survivors and the absence of comprehensive consent education for children. It is an issue too relevant and too pressing to be glossed over with empty well-wishes. We need for you to talk to us, hear our stories, and contribute your voice so that our collective one can not be drowned out by an administration too afraid to tackle a problem so deeply rooted in the culture of our town. For more information, visit www.esvocnh.org.

Reagan Riffle of Peterborough is a senior at ConVal High School.