Chicago Ag Students Watch Eye-Opening Documentary 'The Hunting Ground'

Junior and senior girls as Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in Chicago's Mt. Greenwood neighborhood participate in discussion about sexual assault on college campuses after screening "The Hunting Ground."

For many high school students looking forward to going away to a four-year college or university, the shocking 2015 documentary “The Hunting Ground” should be required viewing.

Director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering’s follow-up to their award-winning documentary “The Invisible War” -- about sexual assault in the military -- “The Hunting Ground” is crowded with survivors’ stories of sexual assault on college campuses and staggering statistics. It’s the kind of film that most adults, women especially, wish they had seen before going off to college, and one that every parent should consider viewing with their son or daughter.

Female juniors and seniors at Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences had that opportunity last Friday. Sitting transfixed as they listened to misty-eyed survivors’ stories of assault and self-blame, the Chicago Ag girls walked away with a powerful message: To say nothing only allows sexual assault to keep happening.

“I’m not saying you’re all potential victims or that all boys are potential rapists,” said Megan Blomquist, director of education and training for Rape Victim Advocates. “Most of you are in the group of ‘other.’ What can we do to create a safer environment?”

More than 100,000 women will be sexually assaulted on college campuses over the next year. For a myriad of reasons, the documentary explains, many of these crimes will go unreported. Women (and men) don’t want to be labeled as victims. Others don’t want to deal with school administrators or law enforcement. Some survivors just blame themselves and spend much of their adulthood burying their pain and keeping quiet.

“When students go away to college, they lose that safety blanket including parents, friends and people in their neighborhood,” Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) wrote in a blog post for Chicago Says No More. “When young college students don’t realize they should be responsible for their own safety, they might fall victim to sexual assault, a life-changing experience no one should endure.”

O’Shea told students at Friday’s viewing that he had reached out to several high school principals and sent copies of the condensed documentary tailored for high school students for their administrations to review.

Chicago Ag principal Bill Hook was the first to respond. Students at the CPS magnet school were the first high school students in Cook County to view the documentary and participate in a discussion facilitated by Blomquist and Jennifer Greene, a policy advisor for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“Sexual assault has been a priority for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez since she came into office,” Greene said. “For us, prevention is critical to making sure we’re not seeing these cases further down the road. We want to make sure the best knowledge is out there and doing everything we can to prevent crime.”

The Chicago Ag junior and senior girls provided some valuable feedback to the facilitators. For one thing, why weren’t the boys in there with them.

“Although this is something women should be told about, it’s something guys should be told about too,” said senior Amanda Miller. “Sexual assault does occur to men. Men and women need to be educated. Consent is a huge thing when it comes to sex, even if it’s just asking someone if you can hold their hand. They need to know how to treat people.”

Student Jessica Wawrzyniak said it would have been helpful to have sexual assault survivors be part of the panel.

“Instead of the movie and just two people, have survivors come and talk to us well,” Wawrzyniak said. “I know most our girls are comfortable with the guys that go here as well. I feel like they would have understood our reactions better.”

Miller also commented that rape is one of the smallest units the school covers in required sex education classes for freshmen and sophomores.

“[Rape] is not something that we go into depth,” Miller said. “They go into safe sex more so, which is still important, but you should acknowledge the other things that can happen with sex.”

Blomquist said there are two types of sexual assault that can occur on college campus.

“There can be predatory sexual assault and sexual assault out of ignorance,” she said. “I agree that talking to girls and boys about what sexual assault is can be very helpful. Often, as the man in that video says, ‘she’s just playing a game,’ or ‘oh she’s a little drunk but I thought she still wanted it to happen.’ By having conversations about the realities, we can remove the ignorance.”

Reporting sexual assault on college campuses works on two different tracks: the school administration and law enforcement, Greene said.

The goal of the program the goal is to work with college campuses across Cook County around dating violence and sexual assault,” Greene continued. “We want to make sure victims know they can call law enforcement and seek justice in the criminal justice system. We’re an active partner and we’re here to listen. What happens on those tracks are two different things.”

“The Hunting Ground” discussion program is a collaboration of rape victim advocacy groups and the Cook County State’s Attorney Officer’s VOICES project -- Violence on illinois Campuses Elimination Strategies.

The program is available to all high schools throughout Cook County.