Students Against Sexual Assault: Fighting to abolish the patriarchy

BY JOSEPH STURGEON

In a school as socially vast as Cooper City High, it makes sense that there’s a wide variety of clubs. Some appeal to the fine arts, such as the Thespians, while some celebrate diversity, like the Multicultural Club and others, still, are focused on students embracing their academic strengths, like Mu Alpha Theta or Science Club.

One particularly notable club, Students Against Sexual Assault (SASA), started during the 2017-2018 school year and was founded by junior and current president Amelia Wesley. SASA’s main goals are to educate students inside and outside of Cooper on sexual assault, as well as fight policies they consider patriarchal, such as the school dress code.

SASA feels that it’s important and necessary to educate society on issues involving sexual assault because there are several factors that tie into these incidents, such as toxic masculinity and race.

“Schools definitely don’t address sexual assault enough,” Wesley said. “One of our bigger goals is to get other schools and the community involved in SASA projects.”

What separates SASA from other clubs is the fact that the club is mainly focused on social issues, something not found in most clubs or even high schools. One concept SASA has discussed is intersectionality, which in feminism is the idea that women of color have a different experience than white women: they experience a combination of both sexism and racism.

“SASA is different because there really hasn’t been any club, that I know of at least, that is educating [students] on [these] important issues,” Vice President Melody Wood said. “[SASA] is not just a support club but also a club looking to take action and make changes.”

Wesley started SASA because she felt that even though sexual assault is a major issue in society, it’s relatively unspoken of in schools, despite the fact that from 2011 to 2015 there were 17,000 reported incidents of sexual assault in U.S. schools.

“It was originally my sister’s idea for me to start SASA,” Wesley said. “Multiple members of our family and friends have been impacted by sexual assault and we thought it would be beneficial to begin educating students early on to prevent it in the future.”

SASA feels that it’s important and necessary to educate society on issues involving sexual assault because there are several factors that tie into these incidents, such as toxic masculinity and race.

“What separates us from other clubs is that we deal with issues that are happening not only in our society but within our community,” Secretary Olivia Vera said.

“It’s important for people to understand these things because we as a society are seeing more and more issues related to sexual violence and assault,” Wood said. “One of the main goals of SASA is to not only bring attention to these problems, but to also educate people on what [is considered] consent and what isn’t, and how to properly gain it.”

Since the club only started last school year, one of SASA’s major goals was to get students interested and spread awareness. When they weren’t focused on that, the club’s members would have guided discussions about different forms of sexual harassment, among other topics.

“We had a discussion on intersectionality, and it really opened my eyes to the struggle of women of other races,” Wood said. “I had known that non-white women had it worse, but I didn’t grasp how worse until we started discussing statistics [on it], like how indigenous women are more likely to be raped than to graduate college.”

Coming into the club’s second year more established, SASA intends to shift its focus from recruiting new members to taking action on spreading awareness of sexual assault. Some initiatives they are considering putting into effect are awareness days, such as “Denim Day,” a day dedicated to raising awareness of sexual assault by wearing jeans.

“What separates us from other clubs is that we deal with issues that are happening not only in our society but within our community,” Secretary Olivia Vera said. “We work to fix these issues and offer solutions.”

Another campaign they plan on partaking in is the “White Ribbon Campaign,” a movement of men and boys alike pledging to end male violence against women, with the ribbon signifying the idea that men are “giving up their arms.”

“Students should join SASA because we can’t just ignore the issues that have been plaguing our society since the beginning of time,” Wesley said. “We are working to make positive changes for students that will impact the future of our entire generation.”

Photo by The Lariat Photography