Women's E News
12.7.15 | Elizabeth Zwerling
This week federal legislators are expected to approve the Teach Safe Relationships Act, which seeks to get high school students focused on healthy relationships. The bill, which has been rolled into the overhauled No Child Left Behind, is based on the premise that sexual-assault-prevention training may be most effective before college age.
After she was raped by a classmate on an overnight field trip in 2012, Esther Warkov's daughter was haunted by nightmares. She spent several months in residential treatment for trauma but never returned to her Seattle school, and eventually moved away from her home and family.
A strong science student and promising orchestral musician, "her whole life trajectory fell apart," said Warkov, founder of the education and advocacy website Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, which is geared toward K-12 students and their families. "She was never able to regain her education. (Today) her location is unknown to us."
