When a person thinks of sexual assult their mind will go to a scene of a man forcibly assulting a women. But that scenario is not always the case. Sexual assult classifies as many diffrent things including, verbal assult, mental assult, and physical assult.

   Verbal assault is more commonly defined as the abuser threatening the victim with assault if they don’t comply; the abuser will constantly talk down to the victim to a point where the victim will start questioning why they even try to fight back or stop it.

   Mental assault is where an abuser will pretend what they’re doing is normal or cover up the actions as a “game” to make the victim believe it was normal. They tend to isolate themselves from the victim or bully the victim into doing what they want. A conversation with them will most likely end with the victim questioning their own ideals and knowledge.

   Physical assault is what most people think of, an abuser will hurt the victim physically through actions such as biting, kicking, punching, and or grabbing upon many more ways. This leaves the victim with bruises or bite marks. 

   It’s very difficult  for a victim to speak up about their assault and who their abuser is. Assault victims don’t always speak up because of the backlash they fear they may receive little to no acknowledgment. It is more difficult for male victims to speak out. 

   One example of this is the Christopher Belter case, where the judge gave the abuser no prison time and stated “I agonized [over the sentence]. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case because there was great pain. There was great harm. There were multiple crimes committed in the case,” Murphy said in court. “It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn’t appropriate, so I am going to sentence you to probation.”

   This article ties into eastern HIB (Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying) because it affects all students and how it makes many students scared to come forward about their abuse and harassment. 

   When interviewed about the topic of eastern HIB a junior, Ava, stated “Adults should obviously see that you’re getting harassed. So does that object to adults who see it unless that child comes forward? It’s weird, it basically is like ‘well, we adults can’t do anything until you tell us.’ You should be looking out for the kids in your care. Not having kids raise kids to raise more kids.” When other students were asked about this situation most if not all asked “What is the point of having HIB?”

  Sexual assult can happen to anyone and it doesn’t just happen to women in “revealing clothes.” Many assaults can happen to those in “normal clothes.”It can happen at any age, at any time, by anyone. Most actions of sexual assault are made by someone the victims knows. An example of this is the “What were you wearing art installation” and “What were you wearing exhibit”  

Hopefully with this new information you’ll know how to spot abuse before it starts and even help those who seem to be in an abusive situation.