DC's Taboo On Sexual Assault
Naina Makkad
WASHINGTON, D.C.—On September 27th, 2018 at 3:05 PM, when the last bell rings, hundreds of students gathered in the library surrounding various computers. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee an hour earlier, which meant CNN Live Broadcast was still going. Silence filled the air as students from around the DC Private schools watched the fate of their alumni. Instagram feeds lit up with stories that say either, “I stand with Dr. Ford” or “I stand with Brett Kavanaugh”.
As a member of an all-girls school, I saw two sides to this. One was the side of Mr. Kavanaugh - of those who are family friends, who went to school with him, who go to school with his kids, who played on the basketball team he coached. For some, it was hard to think of him as the villain in this story. For those who stood with Dr. Ford, the simple truth was that parties, alcohol, and abuse exist. If we discredit women for making a hard decision, those who have suffered sexual abuse won’t feel empowered to speak out. At an all-girls school, we realize the vitality of empowering women to speak up and honor integrity and courage. Therefore, when a man’s word is taken with greater impact than the woman’s word, it creates a dilemma.
To grasp the energy flowing between schools and families at this moment, one must understand the DC Private School Network or at least the Maryland side of them. Country clubs, summer swim teams, and parish schools connect students such as Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh when they go on to their single-sex high schools. Like Kavanaugh, generations of alumni from these prestigious schools choose to send their descendants down the same path - creating an interconnected network of families which means everyone knows someone. Parties, family gatherings, and churches are filled with the same people and access to substance seems cultural. Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Ford were simply part of this large elite group, making it harder for people in the area to conceive such a thought. If these things were happening in the 80s, history could be repeating itself in the same group of elite.
Due to this appalling notion, there has been an increase in open dialogue about sexual assault and drugs and alcohol abuse. This year, Georgetown Day School held the Fourth Annual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent. However, at 7 hours in length and optional to all students, only a select few attended. In addition to these summits on sexual assault, each school has a more popularized talk on substance abuse. Every year, Stone Ridge School offers a required seminar on Substance and Sexual Abuse, educating both parents and children about known issues that come up during social events like homecoming, winter formal, and prom.
Single-sex schools attempt to combat sexism and sexual abuse, but the pull between society’s trauma and education’s optimism is stark. From the first few women of the #MeToo movement in 2016 to the new feature film, Bombshell, that relays true stories about Roger Ailes’ female employees, coming forward with allegations about sexual assault have been on the rise. The effects of this newfound discussion have rippled into social communities around the area. Since the issue of Kavanaugh/Ford is especially close to home, the subject is rarely discussed in a political aspect, becoming highly uncomfortable when everyone has a different point of view. Parents are worried and more involved; teenagers are ready to party hard with fear and education in the back of their minds. While neither party is ready to open a discussion on such a taboo topic, but Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford definitely opened a tightly shut lid into the lives of the DC Private School’s elite lifestyle and the struggle to keep empowering and educating the future.