By Linda J. P. Mahdesian
A girl and her boyfriend are playing drinking games at her house during a party. The girl gets up and goes to her room. She lets her boyfriend come in - they talk on the bed. Talk turns to kissing and kissing turns to foreplay. The girl tells him to slow down. He doesn't. They have sex. She never wants to see him again. He had a good time. She was raped - and the odds are she'll never tell anyone, least of all her parents.
A PG version of this scene will be played out on the stages of dozens of high schools and colleges in about 30 cities across America from late August through Christmas by several recent Brown graduates who form ASAP - the Anti-Sexual Abuse Project. ASAP is a peer education program that uses skits to foster communication and awareness about sexual assault and dating violence.
The group's cross-country trip will begin on Long Island, then heads to Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, then through the Midwest, ending in upstate New York.
ASAP grew out of the Sexual Assault Peer Education (SAPE) program. Started in 1990, SAPE battles the growing problem of sexual assault among high school and college students. According to statistics, 84 percent of college men who have committed sexual assault said that what they did was definitely not rape. Statistics also show that sexual assault is a primary reason women transfer to other colleges.
SAPE has visited numerous high schools and colleges throughout New England, but couldn't accommodate the many requests to bring the program to other areas. A video version of the program is available but cannot replace the interaction during the discussion and small-group periods. And each school gets a customized version of the skits, peppered with local references to classes and popular student hang-outs. "That helps kids connect with the skit - makes it more realistic," says Anna Schissel '96, a member of ASAP.
Because of the demand, a group of graduating SAPErs created ASAP to take its show on the road. ASAP actors perform several scenes in which many of the complex and controversial issues surrounding sexual assault or dating violence are addressed. During the skits the action is stopped to reveal pertinent facts and statistics relating to sexual assault. One such statistic is that 25 percent of all women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. That rings true for ASAP member Deborah Neft '96: "In my high school, every single woman I know has done something sexual that she didn't want to do - that's coercion."
After each performance, the actors remain in character to answer audience questions. They find that the girl in the skit, named "Donna" gets most of the questions - and the blame. "There can be a lot of victim-blaming," says Schissel. "We talk about that ... we try to get them to see things differently."
The peer educators then facilitate small group discussions with workshop participants. ASAP will also run training programs for teachers and counselors so that they can start their own peer education programs.
"It's a chance to do something that hasn't been done before," says Graham Holland '96, one of the few men in the group. Holland believes it's important for men to be part of this kind of project. "I've led all-male small groups - they don't get it unless it's a guy telling them," he says. Neft agrees: "This program does a lot for men."
"There's a need for high school girls to hear men talking about this," says Toby Simon, associate dean of Student Life and technical advisor to ASAP. "And it's very important for girls to see women speak to them about these issues."
The power of ASAP is the peer factor, say its organizers. "They feel comfortable talking to us - both victims and victimizers," says Neft. She adds that occasionally young men approach her after a skit to express their shock at their realization they may have abused a woman. "I feel they're not going to do it again," she said.
Funding for this project is still needed. Students and alumni have raised about a third of the $30,000 needed for the trip. To make a donation, checks made payable to "Office of Student Life Gift Fund" may be mailed to the Office of Student Life, Box P, Providence, RI 02912.