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VOL. 38 NO. 33 www.quadcommunitypress.com $1.00

KIDS CLUB C.A.M.P.: Given green light for summer PAGE 6

District steps up to honor class of 2020

Coping with assault: Virtual help offered Editor’s note: The Quad Community Press does not name victims of sexual assaults. The survivor will be referred to as “Jane.” May 8, 2015 will forever be the worst day of Jane’s life. That’s the day everything changed.

The assault

BY THE NUMBERS: 351,000 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the U.S.

7 out of 10 sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone known by the victim. 30, the age that most sexual

assault victims are under. 15% are 12-17; 54% are 18-34; 28% are 3564; 3% are 65 and over.

1 in every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. 3% of American men (1 in 33) have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Source: Alexandra House, compiled from a multitude of sources.

On the Friday following Cinco de Mayo, Jane, 25, went to a bar with some friends for a birthday celebration. They ran into a group of four men. One of the men introduced himself as “Hugo.” “I thought he was creepy but I did think one of his friends was cute, so I continued talking to his friend,” she recalled. Hugo became irate and begin calling Jane vulgar names when she started to pay more attention to his friend. Jane, who was sober, decided to leave the bar and drive the 10 minutes back to her apartment. Once she got home, she was trying to lock the door when she felt resistance and before she knew it there was a man in her apartment. She quickly recognized him as Hugo. He said, “We are going to get to know each other very well.” Jane tried to make it to her bedroom, where she had a 9 mm gun in her nightstand. “When I opened my bedroom door, my dogs rushed out.

They believed we had a visitor and wanted attention. Scared for my dogs and knowing I couldn’t protect them and go for my gun, I froze,” she recalled. “Before I could get any further into my bedroom, he rushed me and slammed the door behind him. He grabbed me by the hair on the back of my head and shoved me on my bed. I remember thinking God, please don’t let him rape me.” When the assault was over and Hugo had left, Jane did the one thing you are not supposed to do after a sexual assault: she showered. “I felt so gross and sticky. I felt like I smelt like this rancid smell that I could smell coming from him. I felt so disgusting that my fi rst reaction was to get into the shower,” she said. Jane works in criminal law, so she knew once the evidence was gone, there was a very slim-to-no chance that the perpetrator would ever be caught. “I also felt a lot of shame and guilt. I thought it was my fault and that I was going to be blamed for this,” she said. “They won’t see me as a victim, they will just see me as a slut.” Alexandra House Executive Director Connie Moore said, “A lot of times victims won’t report because they are feeling like — somehow — they are responsible for what happened. They feel that if they had done something different it wouldn’t have happened to them, so it is their fault.”

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The class of 2020 has missed out on a lot. That’s why the Centennial School District is doing all it can to celebrate seniors and give them a memory they can cherish. After Gov. Tim Walz announced that districts would not be able to have an in-person graduation this year, district staff had to put their heads together and explore ideas for the best way to send off its seniors. “The end of the school year is nothing that I could have ever imagined. For our graduating seniors, it’s been especially difficult, and we acknowledge that,” said Superintendent Brian Dietz. “Although our graduation ceremony will look very different, we will celebrate and honor the class of 2020 in new ways. We are proud to have these young people in our community and know they will be successful in all of their future endeavors.” “At this time, our hall should be full of kids ... I’ve seen the kids through Google Meets, but it is not the same as seeing them in classrooms or in the hallways,” High School Principal Tom Breuning reflected. “Not having activities, not being able to do the musical, not having a sports season ... those are the things we love to see. That has been really tough.” Everything will all kick off with a celebration video May 26. The video will highlight the activities and events held earlier in the school year that the seniors did not miss out on. Watch the high school’s website (isd12. org/schools/high-school/centennialhigh-school) for a link to the video.

SEE COPING WITH ASSAULT, PAGE 11

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