Dear Our New President,

  Rape is a disease. It grows and it grows until there is nothing left of the host. It’s a parasite that needs a cure. But the thing is, is anyone even looking for that cure? Rape culture in America is a growing issue, and that’s where the problem lies. It shouldn’t be increasing at all. People need to realize that rape isn’t something to just sweep under the rug. To understand this, you must look at how rape affects a person, and what we need to do to prevent it.

  Following this further, when looking at the statistics, you can clearly see that rape can occur with any person and can affect them in many ways. As said by RAINN, fifty-four percent of sexual assault cases are more likely to occur between the ages of eighteen to thirty-four for both genders. One in six women get sexually assaulted and eighty-two percent of juvenile victims are female. But in the other spectrum, you can see that one in every ten rape victims are male. Not only that, but Native Americans from ages twelve and up experience 5,900 sexual assaults per year. Also, twenty-one percent of TGQN (Transgender, genderqueer, and non conforming) college students have been sexually assaulted. The effects of rape can also be quite frightening. Statistics show that ninety-four percent of females raped experience PTSD symptoms in the two weeks that follow their rape. Thirty-three percent of women think about suicide and thirteen percent attempt it. Someone might argue that the rape was the victim's fault and that they were “asking for it” or “were dressed inappropriately.” But victim blaming isn’t the way to solve this problem. You wouldn’t tell the victim of a normal assault case that it was their fault for getting attacked, so why do we say this to victims of rape? Rape is a crime, and we must acknowledge it as one.

  In addition to this, preventing rape is a huge matter that America needs to focus on. Many people continuously tell girls that they shouldn’t wear something because boys don’t know how to control themselves, but that is the completely wrong approach to fixing this issue. We need to teach young boys and girls that rape isn’t okay and that they can’t touch others without their consent. In addition, charges for rape need to be less lenient because so many rapists only stay in jail for about 5 years and some don’t even get sentenced. Many people try to make the rapist seem like the good guy so that they don’t have to deal with the fact that he violated someone else. They say that he was “such a great person!” or that “he would never do that to anyone!” But he did. This person chose to violate another human being knowing that it was wrong. Rapists are rapists, and they deserve to go to jail to pay the price of their crime.

  A disease thrives. It spreads out until you are completely engulfed in it. Rape is this disease, and it needs to be stopped. It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of the people in the United States and to do this, we must acknowledge that we have a problem. So many diverse individuals get sexually assaulted and yet, we don’t utilize the many ways to prevent them. So what do we do? Well, we do the right thing. We make this country a place where young girls can walk down the street without the fear of scary men hurting them, or where older girls don’t feel obligated to act a certain way because no one taught those other boys and girls to not treat others wrongly. We need the help of you, the new president, to make this happen. To ensure our safety, and to cure this sickness.

Respectfully,

  A Concerned Student