101 Bedford students report having been forced into sexual intercourse

101 Bedford students reported they have, at some time in their lives, "been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to", according to the results of the 2021 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) which will be discussed at the Monday, November 28th, Bedford School Board meeting.

In plain language, this is 101 reports of rape in our community.

We also learn via the YRBS that 176 students in Bedford have experienced "sexual violence in the past 12 months” (2021).

Unfortunately, this reports are not new, and are trending worse.

What can you do?

Believe the reports.

Experts at the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence https://www.nhcadsv.org/ tell us these are chronically under-reported - the actual occurrence of sexual violence and rape is much higher.

Still don't believe it?
Ask our teachers.
Ask the police.
Ask your kids, they will tell you - In fact, they already did.

Talk about the problem.

Discussing sexual violence in Bedford, and the efforts to prevent it, needs to happen more than once every 2-years that the CDC asks.

Discussing social norms that protect against sexual violence and teaching/reinforcing healthy relationship skills at home is something we can all do immediately.

Ask our elected leaders to actively and purposefully invest to prevent sexual violence and rape in our community.

The Bedford School Board and the Bedford Town Council can prioritize net-new teaching, training, awareness, and community services with prevention as the focus.

Our Bedford State Representatives and Senator can drive meaningful, and measurable support for reducing risk-factors in our community and across the state.

It's budget season for the Bedford School Board and the Bedford Town Council, the time for funding new action is now.

Take a moment to scan through the CDC's report, and some of more challenging details of behaviors our children face as described by the students in our schools.

Bedford school's summary spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spread...

CDC summary report
https://drive.google.com/file/...

CDC Sexual violence prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/violencepr...

As we return from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, let's also take some time to hear the voices of our community’s children who have experienced sexual violence in the last 12 months, and resolve to take action we can all be thankful for.

Thank you,
Jay Nash

cc:
Bedford School Board
Bedford Town Council
Bedford State Representatives
Bedford State Senator