Everyone knows that sexual abuse is wrong. But it seems, in light of recent events, that a few notable people either missed the memo or thought that this just didn’t apply to them and their lives.

One of my teachers brought this to light the other day in class when he asked what were we learning in health regarding sexual misconduct and the answer was, “nothing yet.” He raised a really valid concern of whether or not we were really being taught what effect sexual assault can have on a victim.

What do we do as a community to promote the wellbeing of our fellow humans? We have the CHOICES program to help influence our decisions, but its effect on our choices may not be enough. We’re all so concerned about drugs and addictions to weed, nicotine, and opiates, it’s almost like we forget that sex addictions exist and affect people around the world. There’s a decent chance that some of the students at our school are addicted to sex or pornography.

Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K, Kevin Spacey, Brett Kavanaugh. All of these men have been accused of some type of sexual misconduct. We discuss the effects of these accusations on the perpetrators of these crimes every day, but it’s almost like we’re missing the point. What we do in the past can affect us so much later in life.

I walk around school and I can hear people talk about their sexual conquests like these aren’t girls but rather just objects. It’s honestly disturbing and isn’t a good reflection of our student body and what we stand for. We don’t want to be the reason why these girls can’t trust, feel safe, or resent men. At least I know I don’t.

I think we should, as a school, take the time to really understand the effects of some of our destructive ways of thinking on others. Whether this is through a CHOICES program or some other outside source, we need to realize that there are consequences to our actions that can affect us years down the line. The last thing I want is to one day see one of our own in the same situation as these men for their shortcomings.