This past week, several Plano ISD students/alumni have come forward with stories regarding how they were sexually harassed and/or assaulted by their peers. Yet, the district continues to turn a blind eye. If the excuse that the abuser uses is "I didn't know any better," don't you think a better job should be done to educate students on what sexual assault looks like? PISD has failed us once again, and they need to do better.

A key example of just how big of a problem sexual assault is in PISD takes place in the theatre departments of both Shepton High School and Plano West Senior High School. Several male students have cultivated what many consider to be a rape culture. At Shepton High School, the male theatre students started a tradition called "Slap-Ass Fridays," where they went around touching female students inappropriately every Friday. This was a tradition with the theatre alumni, and it was still a tradition when I was in theatre at Shepton. The director, Ms. Carmen McElwain was aware of Slap-Ass Fridays, yet she did nothing about it. At Plano West Senior HS, the current director, Mr. Michael Davison, engaged in what can be considered grooming of minors and knowingly allowed his students to be bullied and harassed as well. While many of these problems are at the fault of the directors, a high school student should know right from wrong.

I, and several others, am calling for PISD to do a better job of educating their students about sexual assault. Create a class that educates students on the topic, or find a way to implement it into health class because the curriculum taught in that class is extremely outdated. Sexual assault isn't something that should be happening on our campuses.