S.O.S. welcomed a special guest speaker who shared her story of sexual assault with students from across the KVOE listening area.
In January 2012 Daisy Coleman, then 14, and her close friend were sexually assaulted in the home of a high school classmate. After the assault, Coleman was left unconscious in her front yard for several hours. In the ensuing months after the case gained national attention Coleman and her family experienced backlash from community members including hate mail, verbal abuse and even skepticism from law enforcement officials.
Since the assault took place Daisy and her older brother Charlie have begun speaking out against sexual assault and encouraging other victims to share their stories. The siblings were the keynote speakers for the S.O.S. Child Abuse Prevention summit Wednesday morning at White Auditorium.
Daisy says her story is just one of many, and together she and other survivors are helping create more dialogue in the ongoing discussion of sexual assault.
A major misconception of rape culture is that women are the only victims and men are not affected in any way. Charlie Coleman believes this is a misguided idea and only hurts the fight against sexual assault.
Before the siblings began their presentation, S.O.S. presented the Netflix documentary Audrie and Daisy which detailed Daisy’s story as well as the story of Audrie Pott, a 15-year-old Saratoga, California high school student who committed suicide in September 2012 after being sexually assaulted.
Towards the end of the presentation, Daisy stated, “you are not alone,” a statement that she tells all assault survivors she encounters.
The siblings run their own campaign known as SafeBae where they provide educational videos and information on high school rape. For more information on sexual assault statistics or SafeBae’s mission visit their website at Safebae.org.
