Symposium Reflection #1
So far we have learned that in many cases women are blamed that it is their fault. We have learned that  70% of cases are not reported and 80% of the victims are under age 30. They  say that your skirt was too short or you were showing too much chest area.  In other cases men don’t get a severe consequence which can lead them to doing it again. Victims think it is not that serious so they don’t tell anyone. We hope to find a person who has been through the experience to interview them. We also  need someone who thinks its the woman's fault. Interviewing them would be a better source, since it is a primary source. We have similar mindset and we have a good collaboration that is going at a steady paste. We really understand each other which helps us out a lot. There is really nothing that is going wrong. We hope to send a positive message to everyone.
  Symposium Reflection #2
Since the last time we wrote our driving questions it was changed because our question was bias or against men. Our question at first was “Do the military and educational system contribute to men deriving power from sexual assault” now it has been changed and improved to “Do the military and educational systems contribute to an imbalance of power between men and women in situations of sexual assault?” We are planning to do a interview to help us gather more information, hopefully we get a reply. We are planning to interview a counselor that specializes on our topic, sexual assault. Everything so far has been going well, we have found our information pretty smoothly. The only thing we had to was to find new articles since ours weren’t good enough. Our ISD has to be good enough for us to present our project without having to get stuck in the middle of presenting.We also need our visual piece which has to really bring the viewers attention to our station. I think we have collaborated so far good, sometimes we disagree with our opinions but we end up agreeing with something. We have similar mindsets.
 Symposium Reflection #3
I learned that guys can get away with many things. Many times men don’t get a severe consequence because and the education system and military contributes to that situation many times. I learned that I am capable of doing many thing even though they are very stressful. With my group sometimes we disagree but at the end of the day we have finally agreed with something. We have actually already finished our tri fold and I at first I was kinda skeptical but once it was all done I was proud it was partly my work. We have done half a college campus, half the american flag and at the bottom women holding hands with each other. We were planning to do a man sculpture and pin things men get away with but it does not exactly tie in with our whole research it is just a part. We need to make sure we finish our supplementary piece for sure. We also need to write out our speech. We have worked very well with each other but sometimes we just get frustrated.
  Symposium Reflection 4
Our driving question was “Do the military and educational systems contribute to the imbalance power between men and women in situations of sexual assault.” We checked if everything was on the board and if everything was neat. I learned that women are many times blamed for being sexualy assaulted. I learned that there are many ways to show or present an object that is shown over your project. I learned many more information that we didn't know about before that we found. Among each other I believe we made a fair part on divided the evenly and we collaborated pretty well. I think we would have done our dog tag differently since it didn’t really look like a dog tag. The best advice is to not leave anything for last minute and to not give up even if it gets really hard and stressful.
SLR
Interview Kristen Swinford: Sexual assault victim services. This is kristen Alondra: Hi is mrs.swinford there? Kristen Swinford: This is she. Alondra: This is Sandy and Alondra and we’re 8th graders from Mendez Intermediate. We sent you an email saying that we can call you and we thank you for answering our email. Are you available right now to ask you questions? Kristen Swinford: Yes of course. Sandy: Ok so our first question is,what do you specialize in and what is your everyday routine? Kristen Swinford: Sure so we specialize in working with survivors of sexual assault so we are the only rape crisis center in all of orange county so we work with anyone who identifies as a victim of sexual violence. We are a crisis center so our everyday routine kinda looks very different. It really depends on the day and the time but what a typical day might look like in our office. There’s always somebody on call so let’s say it’s my on call day. I have kind leave my day available to respond to anyone who goes to the hospital to get a forensic medical exam for a sexual assault. We answer the 24 hour hotline so it’s available for anybody to call and it’s completely confidential and we just answer people’s questions. Maybe their concerns, provide them support. We have a lot of follow up calls that we do. All our cases just check in that we work with. We have counseling appointments that we do. Sometimes we get called out to a company,people when their reporting to law enforcement and sometimes we go out and our day may look like that cause sometimes it takes a couple hours when they are reporting to law enforcement. We also do a lot of paperwork and we sometimes have our monthly statistics so we’re doing stacks and that’s kinda what a day may look like for us. Alondra: For our second questions is, what percentage of patients have been sexually assaulted? Kristen Swinford: So i dont have the exact statistic but majority of the clients that we work with,I would say pretty much close 95% of them have been sexually assaulted because of our title of our agency and because we are the rape crisis center. Majority of the time when people reach out to us it’s because they’ve been sexually assaulted so there are some cases where people go get a forensic medical exam cause they’re not sure if anything happened to them and there’s the possibility that maybe something didn’t happen to them so there’s that small percentage but the majority of the people we work with have been sexually assaulted. Sandy: Ok. What percent of your patients receive justice when they were sexually assaulted? Kristen Swinford: So that’s a pretty tough question. I dont have the exact percentages but typically the rape crises center portion of the our unit do our unit is split into 2 actually 3 but we are the initial crisis responders meaning we deal with people right after it happened and then if the case gets filed it typically goes over to our D.A. like the district attorney’s office and we have sexual assault victim advocates in the D.A.s office and so when majority of our cases, they do not receive justice. We actually a lot of our cases don't get that justice so i would say that anywhere that 30% of cases go up to criminal justice and they receive justice through the court centers. Alondra: Between men and women which gender receives more attention about sexual assault when reporting? Kristen Swinford: So i think it’s definately women. We recognize that this crime is happening to the men out there especially younger men but i think the majority of people that tend to reach out to us is women because for men there’s a whole other component. You know it’s hard to reach out. It’s hard to admit something happened and sometimes for men they have an added element of fear when reporting. Am i gonna get judged? Are people gonna tell me that well your a man so i think that more attention definitely is around women but more and more recently we’re definitely talking more about how it’s happening to all genders of people especially our men too. Sandy: Oh ok.In which setting do women usaully get sexually assaulted more? In a military environment or in an educational environment like a college campus? Kristen Swinford: Yeah so the majority of the cases that we get in the rape crisis center. We get more of the college campus reporting of sexual assault. We team up a lot with our local orange county colleges. For example, April is sexual assault awareness month so we’re all over all different college campuses promoting prevention and putting out different t-shirts so it’s our clothesline project which is where people create shirts and they are able to speak about what happened to them and so often times majority of our cases come from the educational environment. It’s definitely happening in the military and we actually work with female veterans who were assaulted but they have their own separate advocates at time who work with them and provide them support especially if they were assaulted in the military so they do have their own advocates so we work a little bit more with education but i think statistics are pretty close. I think it happens in the military often and that’s just sexual assault is a term and that can also mean sexual harassment because that’s definitely happening in the military. Alondra: What is the most common reason why anyone would sexually assault another person? Kristen Swinford: I think the #1 answer to that question to that is power and control. Often times when someone assaults another person they have some form of power and control over that person and cause you know rape is not sex rap is violence and it is definitely a act of power over another person so i think that’s probably the #1 reason Sandy: If a male was sexually assaulted would his case recieve more attention than a female or is there even a difference between those 2 genders? Kristen Swinford: Yeah I don’t think that it would receive more attention. The only thing that i can speak to you is that often times when you give let’s say a male case. Often times maybe it may be like a school coach or a music a teacher or it’s normally someone who has power and control and maybe someone in the community who was assaulting a bunch of young men and so sometimes those are the one’s that you see in the news or that receive a lot of attention because it’s someone who is in the community who have power so i think that sometimes if they do get kinda highlighted more maybe in the news like a coach was assaulting a bunch of young volleyball players or water polo players but i think that they often times get pretty equal attention. It depends on who’s the perpetrator and normally if someone has power or when we see on the news of like a sports figure or someone they really highlight that because it makes sure for good news which is kinda sad that that’s how it turns out.
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​ISD
DRIVING QUESTION Driving Question: Do the military and educational systems contribute to an imbalance of power between men and women in situations of sexual assault?

Systems work to complete a task or a mission.
The educational and military systems in America are supposed to have a mission of providing a safe place to learn and train. However, the systems within these two institutions do not allow for enough cases of sexual assault to reach justice. According to Speier (CNN, 2012), the chances of a crime seeing consequences is slim. For example, “you have an estimated 86.5% chance of keeping your crime a secret and a 92% chance of avoiding a court-martial” in the military. Military service members discourage victims of reporting crime because they realize that,that can end badly. If they do speak up they end up getting forced to leave the military and the assaulter stays standing along with his friends. She later left the university since they didn't give a harsher punishment and so she had no other choice but to leave. Assaultants can face no or very little punishment if someone does realize their actions. Most times victims drop out of school but their assailants graduate and get a quality job. Some of the schools accuse the assaulters responsible but only a few expel them According to Freeman(2010), “We’d like to think that we can always educate and hold accountable the student,”(p. 2) says Pamela Freeman, associate dean of students at Indiana University. IU officials defended suspending Margaux’s alleged attacker as, in effect, a teachable moment

Systems are composed of subsystems and parts.
Two signs have to be shown-behavior of not having consent is one of them. This experience affects victim psychological and physical health. It affects the attitude of the victim once they leave the military. Victims can also have eating disorders or stress after their experience. Some people think that when men feel threatened by a woman or a weaker man and sometimes they feel the need to show their power through sexual language. In certain situations, if you are able to rape or kill then you are seen as powerful. Alcohol also takes a great fault in sexual assault situations. Many people also say that it wasn’t in his control because he was drugged or maybe drunk and it wasn’t his fault. “It was because of his hormones.” In the military you have to have limit empathy in order to make killing easier and when you do that to another member it can socially distance them and make it easier to justify sexual assault.


Systems follow rules.
Systems in college campuses must follow rules in situations of sexual assault. Many times authority will disobey them to portray a better image on the college. An example can be Title IX which is“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”which shows a sign of protection to victims of who don’t feel safe. Statistics show that about 1 out of 4 students on a college campus can be sexual assaulted. Many times,instead of going to authorities, they quick because they are scared of retaliation. Numerous universities have had to answer hard questions about what they are doing to prevent gender-based violence, but don’t tell the full truth in these situations. Many times the victims are scared and prefer not to be walking outside alone.In some situations, those who have been sexually assaulted get blamed and say it's their fault. Some ask what they were wearing(not supposed to wear short dresses). Sometimes they get threats from their aggressors to not say anything, and many of them do what they say. “If you serve in the U.S. military and you rape or sexually assault a fellow service member, chances are you won't be punished. In fact, you have an estimated 86.5% chance of keeping your crime a secret and a 92% chance of avoiding a court-martial”(Jackie speier,CNN, 2012). Many people do not receive a severe consequence or no consequence at all.

Systems may be influenced by other systems.
Systems in sexual assault contribute to other systems by influencing the victim’s thoughts or actions when they panic and don’t know what to do. This quote shows how the influence of president Trump can influence other people to think sexual assault is ok “Many advocates are concerned, however, about the future of those protections under President Trump”(Jessica luther,New York Times 2017). Some people think that it is ok to be able to sexually assault someone just because someone else got away with it(received no severe consequence.) There was a man who said “and to be saying that just because a women says no and because you have sex the two facts a woman says no and you have sex then are you a rapids automatically because of that?”(Kirby Dick and amy ziering 2015). “fears that without this kind of guidance from the Education Department, schools will have if education does guide young teens, this can potentially prevent many cases of sexual assault.” (Jessica Luther, New York Times, 2017). “Americans should be concerned about the actions of federal agencies under President Trump, says Mr. Strangio” (Jessica Luther,New York Times, 2017) There are many people that influence other people to sexually  assault another person. Sexual assault affects many women physically and mentally and can cause different people into depression which sometimes the victims influence other people not to tell. Sometimes military administrators make the victim quit so they don’t say anything. The assaulter can be influenced in many bad ways. For example, they can be influenced by people who have done it and gone away with sexual assault.

Works cited:
Eldridge, E. (2017). Uber driver charged with assault on pregnant passenger. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/uber-driver-charged-with-assault-pregnant-passenger/oW6wjhANDkXAqAWODu9cAM/ Lombardi, K. (2010). A lack of consequences for sexual assault. The Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved from https://www.publicintegrity.org/2010/02/24/4360/lack-consequences-sexual-assault Lombardi, K. (2009). Campus sexual assault statistics don’t add up. The Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved from https://www.publicintegrity.org/2009/12/02/9045/campus-sexual-assault-statistics-don-t-add Luther, J. (2017). Fighting college sexual assault in Trump era. New York Times. Retrieved from              https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/opinion/fighting-college-sexual-assault-in-the-trump-era.html\ Speier, J. (2012). Why rapists in military get away with it? Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/opinion/speier-military-rape/ Kirby Dick, (2015)The hunting ground Netflix Netflix Documentary

Driving Question: Do the military and educational systems contribute to the imbalance of power to between men and women in situations of sexual assault?
Names of student researchers: Sandy Ceja Alondra Luis
Grade level: 8 Mentor teacher: Ms.Park

ENDING QUESTION
Where do I fit in? How do the actions or beliefs of military and educational systems affect my view on gender roles in sexual assault?

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