The Boston Police Department has initiated a new program to educate teenagers about sexual assault.
The program uses films, skits and music videos, and begins at the Department of Youth Services this Friday and in Boston High Schools in late March.
“Our research department did a seven-year longitudinal study on assault rates and indicated there’s a higher reporting of sexual assault by that [12-15 years old] age group,” said Sgt. Det. Kim Gaddy. “We get calls here every day on sexual assaults.”
Lt. Det. Gary French instructed Gaddy to come up with a response to the assault rates and a new program. She wrote the curriculum, which connects the District Attorney’s Office, Department of Youth Services, Boston School Police, victims of sexual assault and unified student services from Boston Public School with the Boston Police Department to have a five-part lesson plan, each of which is 45 minutes long.
“The components [of the plan] are origins of violence, teen-dating violence, sexual violence and sexual assault,” Gaddy said.
According to Gaddy, the first lesson begins with a pretest of 15-25 questions about domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
A homework assignment is given in which the students have to find a song that has some form of violence or sexual harassment and write the lyrics.
As part of the other lessons, the students examine the meanings of potentially harmful remarks or gestures and explore the meanings of music videos.
In the final lesson, the teachers explain circumstances that may lead to sexual assault against a woman and note that no woman should be a victim.
Students then graduate and “if anyone is interested in continuing to educate their peers on sexual violence, they can join various peer programs,” Gaddy said.
“On each day, class will be taught by someone from the police department and someone from another department. In this way it is innovative because kids get to see everyone who is involved in these issues,” she said.
“The purpose is to change the thinking relating to sexual violence and is designed to be educational,” said Rev. Timothy Allen of Morningstar Baptist Church in Mattapan. “The primary reason for beginning this program is not because it is out of control, but because of some incidences it is prudent to address problems before they get out of hand.”
As teenagers become more sexually active, many believe education is the most effective way to make the line between wanted and unwanted sex clearer.
“A lot of them don’t know if they are being sexually harassed. It’s scary for a lot of girls and I think it will help them,” said Nicole Coutsonikas, a freshman in the School of Management.
“The more they know, the more people can prevent it,” said Rajat Jain, a sophomore in the School of Management. “It’s the whole idea about it.”
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