Student disclosure: The aftermath of teaching about sexual violence in the classroom

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Acknowledgements

I want to thank all my former colleagues from the United States Navy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program for their many years of mentorship and training that transformed me into a life-long advocate for sexual assault survivors. Likewise, the staff at the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center showed me what limitless compassion and professional grit can accomplish, especially when employed to help sexual assault survivors. I owe a big thank you to the Professors and Graduate Teaching Assistants who spoke with me about their personal experiences with student disclosures of sexual assault. Most importantly, this article is for all the survivors that have allowed me to walk with them through the darkest moments of their lives. They have taught me more about human resiliency than I could have ever thought possible.

Notes

1 The assignment came from: Hedgepeth and Saidel (2010), chapters 2 and 8. Chapter 2, “Sexualized Violence against Women during Nazi ‘Racial’ Persecution,” by Brigitte Halbmayr (2010) introduces a framework for studying sexual violence during Word War II. Halbmayr specifically breaks down the different forms of sexualized violence in Nazi concentration camps. Chapter 8, “Rape and Sexual Abuse in Hiding,” by Zoe Waxman, focuses on the sexual abuse against Jewish women who were forced into hiding by Nazi racial persecution.

2 For sexual assaults involving minors, each state has its unique set of guidelines. In some cases, if you become aware of a sexual assault against a minor, certain states or cities mandate that you report the crime. If you are unfamiliar with the reporting guidelines in your local area, ask your school or reach out to Child Protective Services.

3 “9 out of every 10 victims of rape are female.” “Scope of the Problem: Statistics,” RAINN, accessed on September 29, 2020, https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem. For a larger breakdown of sexual assault statistics in different minority groups, see the resources put together by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center on their website at: https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics.

4 For more information on the body’s freeze reaction, see Stanley, Widen the Window, chapter 4, or specifically pages 89-90.

5 See the recent work of Liat Steir-Livny with regards to the portrayal of female Holocaust survivors in Israeli film: Liat Steir-Livny Ph.D | Articles.

6 For more information on the categorization of sexual assault reports as well as false reporting, see this pamphlet published by the NSVRC: https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/Publications_NSVRC_Overview_False-Reporting.pdf.

7 In The New Republic, James Robins recently published an article on the potential for historians to suffer from vicarious trauma through their research. For more information: Can Historians Be Traumatized by History? | The New Republic.

8 Even though it is meant for trauma professionals, Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others (2009) by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky with Connie Burk is a good resource for understanding and recovering from vicarious trauma.

9 To reach out with questions or to offer other ideas to improve responses to student disclosure, please contact me at [email protected].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley Valanzola

Ashley Valanzola is a doctoral candidate in History at the George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. She specializes in modern European history with a focus on the Holocaust and Gender Studies. Her dissertation, Prevail: Jewish Women and the Preservation of Holocaust Memory in France, examines the power of individual women, such as Simone Veil and Sabine Zlatin, to shape the production of Holocaust memory from 1945 to the present day. Her research was funded by the Chateaubriand Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences, provided by the Embassy of France in the United States. Before coming to GWU, Ashley spent six years as a Naval Officer. For part of her time in the Navy, she served as a sexual assault victim advocate and led sexual assault prevention classes. Today she continues her work with survivors of sexual assault as a volunteer with the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center.