Students and staff show support for sexual assault victims by wearing black

“If there wasn’t social media or texting, and if I wasn’t on my phone last night, I wouldn’t have known that this had happened. I think that social media is a good way to spread news really fast and get the word out for these situations.”

“There was a girl who was sexually assaulted in the Shawnee Mission School District, and we are wearing black to support her. I heard that a lot of the Shawnee Mission schools were going to be wearing black today along with Rockhurst. I decided to wear black to support her in that.”

“I’m wearing black today to show support for not only what happened at Shawnee Mission East but just to show support for all sexual assault victims - those who are victims of rape and other unsolicited advances toward them, and just to bring about the attention that this stuff is real... The more people that do it, you start to realize, ‘Oh, why is everyone wearing black?’ and you start to...

“This is a first step. This isn’t directly going to help, but it’s the first phase. It brings awareness. It shows people that it’s something big that we all feel bad about. The next step is to actually take action and to work towards it... I want to add that this is actually a really big problem in society that doesn’t get much attention. Even though people talk about it, not much has been...

“I definitely noticed that there were a larger percentage of students wearing black than normal, it was apparent to me there was a trend going. I also knew ahead of time that students were going to, so I may have been more predisposed to see that.” “I think anything students do to try to raise awareness of this issue is great, and I do think that showing they care about it and they want their...

“I think certainly as opposed to doing nothing, people rallying around a cause that is one worth rallying behind is always a good thing and one step can make a large difference so when that initial step is taken and people jump on board it’s always a good thing. In general people even disagreeing if they’re having conversation it’s at least creating awareness.”  

“I think it will spread awareness, I don’t know how much it will do for preventing it but I think it will make everyone more aware of it happening and reduce the risk of it happening."

"I don’t know much, just what I’ve heard second- and third- and fourth-hand. I think any time you can take a stand and show that something’s important to you, that helps make a difference, and show that you support a cause."

"I got in a group message and someone sent several paragraphs explaining why [we should wear black], and I said 'hey, I’ll do this,' because this is something that people need to be aware of."

"It’s really interesting to be a part of something that is both important to students and adults. I think it's important that high schoolers are aware that things like this do happen, all around the world, that there are severe cases and that it isn’t OK, ever."

"I’m hoping that people start to realize that things like this shouldn’t be taken lightly, and that no one should turn a blind eye and say 'you know, it’s nothing, it’s not a big deal,' this is a girl who didn’t ask for this and didn’t deserve to be sexually assaulted...I just really hope someone pays attention to the message behind this."

"Well, I saw [the news] on Instagram, took a screenshot, posted that screenshot and went along with it. The post said 'Wear black tomorrow for your support.'"

"We’re raising awareness for the whole thing. I’m just in support of the girl, and hopefully justice is given in this horrible situation. This can’t just be looked over, this has to be addressed."

"[I’m wearing black] to show support with the things that happened at Shawnee Mission East. Even though we don’t go to Shawnee Mission East, we still care about what happened and stuff."