Every 107 seconds. Every 107 seconds someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, an outrageous statistic that a coalition of high school students are trying to change. The Healthy Relationships Taskforce (HRT), a group that spreads awareness about sexual assault and works to find ways of prevention, is fighting the staggering and often unknown statistics of sexual assault.

Working under Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment (PAVE), a large non-profit organization intended to empower students, parents and civic leaders to end sexual violence, as well as providing a safe place for survivors of sexual assault, the two groups joined forces and organized a “Consent Is” campaign. This campaign was held in multiple schools in the county, including Yorktown on May 26. Students were asked to write what consent means to them on an individualized wristband, successfully encouraging the discussion of sexual assault and destigmatizing the myths that exist.

One of the co-chairs of HRT and junior at Washington Lee, Caroline Raphael, was amazed by the positive support the Consent Is campaign received.

“When I led the campaign at Washington Lee, we created a banner with a pledge to help prevent sexual violence. Over 500 people signed it. Seeing how positive and receptive everyone was to our efforts was amazing, and in that moment, I felt like we were truly making a difference,” said Raphael.

Many of the words students chose to define consent included “beautiful,” “freely given,” and “enthusiastic,” showing that despite the myths of deciding if someone is a willing sexual partner being complicated, most people fully understand sexual consent. Yet, the concept of victim shaming and ideals of incompetence among victims still persists in our society. That is where HRT comes in. Though high school students cannot directly counsel survivors, they still play a huge role in allowing survivors to move forward with their lives.

“Members of HRT provide survivors with resources such as rape crisis and suicide hotline numbers, Title IX information and self care packages. We would love to do fundraising to help make some of our goals more realistic,” said Raphael.

HRT is without a doubt a powerful campaign and the impact it has on members is outstanding. For senior and co-chair Lily Pressman, the group has become more like a family.

“Sexual assault and dating violence are subjects that hit close to home for me personally, but I realized it affects so many others, which is why it has become something I’m very passionate about … Being a co-chair for HRT and working with PAVE for my senior experience is a lot more work than I bargained for, but I truly enjoy every minute of it. Even if it helps just one person, I feel like it completely validates all the effort we have put into HRT,” said Pressman.

The group has only been active for a couple of months, but has already had an incredible impact on the APS community. The group has, and will continue to, prevent sexual and dating violence and shattering the silence that exists around sexual assault.

All are welcome to become a part of HRT. If you are interested, email arlingtonhrt@gmail.com to be put on the emailing list.