Lorain High students share allegations of sexual assault during protest

LORAIN — Students at Lorain High feel the district has failed to adequately investigate sexual assaults. A protest staged Friday was sparked by the organizer's own experience after she said she was sexually assaulted by a football player in September and reported it to her counselor — who made her feel small and like she shouldn't have come forward, she said Friday evening. The sophomore said she waited a month or two before reporting the incident again to the school nurse — her cheerleading coach — but the investigation by an assistant principal left her feeling like it was being hurriedly shoved under the rug, she said. She said the assistant principal asked her why she didn't fight back and questioned if she really told the boy "no." While the boy was ultimately suspended for a short time, she said she felt like he was being protected because he was on the football team and began hearing from other students who'd faced similar situations. "Ever since that happened, I feel like I really see how the school treats situations like this and it's just disgusting," she said. She created the Instagram account lhs_sa_protest, and planned for Friday a walkout and for students to march through the halls with signs, painting handprints on their bodies to represent sexual assault. Ultimately, about 150 students joined the protest, which building officials ushered from the cafeteria to the auditorium, she said. Video posted on Instagram by another student shows Principal Pat Coleman trying to stop the event after the first few speakers and send students back to class, but he was continuously shouted down. He faced backlash from the crowd after what they took to be a flippant remark calling the session "bad group therapy," the organizer said. Each time staff tried to stop the protest or talk to students before they took the microphone, the crowd chanted "let (him or her) talk" until it moved forward. For almost two hours, dozens of students stood on the stage, sharing stories of their alleged assaults — at the hands of classmates, family or trusted individuals. Some were recent — like the organizer's report — while others were from their childhood at 6 or 10 years old. "This school treats sexual assault as a joke and something that shouldn't be talked about. It's past time for it to be talked about," one girl said. "We have had enough." Multiple students accused football players, alleging they were approached when they, or girls they knew, were 14 years old and the boy was 18. Some said they went to Lorain police, but nothing was done. "You don't realize how traumatizing sexual assault can be," one student said. "'Stop' means no, 'I don't want to' means no, 'I don't feel like it' means no, 'yes but no' — it still means no. "What you're doing is (hurting that person), especially if it's someone you trusted." CEO Jeff Graham said the district will start investigating the students' claims next week. "Of course, if we did anything wrong, we won't hide from this. This was awful and I felt awful for every kid — I applaud these kids for having the courage to tell these stories," he said. Graham said the families of the students who spoke have been contacted and crisis counselors and Lorain Police detectives will be on hand Tuesday to take reports where applicable. A video of Friday's protest will also be forwarded to Lorain County Children Services, as school officials are mandated reporters of abuse or neglect. But the sophomore who started it all fears little will be done. "I think that in the next couple of weeks the school is going to try to promote sexual assault awareness and be all about helping the students … and then just go back to the way it was," she said. "But what I hope happens is that they get better training on how to deal with sexual assault accusations for their counselors and assistant principals and just learn how to deal with it better and I hope that they realize how they're hurting us when they don't listen to us or when they shrink us, shrink our stories." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com. FOR MORE INFORMATION If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) operates the nation's largest hotline, providing 24/7 confidential support via online chat at online.rainn.org or (800) 656-4673.