Manhattan High students affected by sexual harassment

Unnamed sophomore female

Interview conducted by Meredith Comas

“The first time he ever did it when we were freshman and was making me uncomfortable and was like ‘not even a panty pic?’“

“When I finally told him he was making me uncomfortable and giving me a panic attack he was like ‘sorry I won’t ever ask again’ but that was a lie.”

“You can kind of tell, I mean not always, but most of the time you can tell when it’s okay to be around somebody and they’re not… just disgusting and using you for something. ”

“What we have been doing obviously isn’t working and they just continue to do it and people go to jail for stuff like this but it still happens”

Unnamed sophomore male

Interview conducted by Sophia Comas

“I still knew it was wrong and and I myself wanted to stop sometimes.”

“When you wake up and realize that people hate you and you wake up and realize your family hates you for what you did it definitely open your eyes to see things things that you didn’t see before.”

“You don’t think about how that decision can ruin the next thirty years i mean in thirty minutes that one choice to do something really had the potential to ruin my life.”

“Don’t do it and think that it’ll stay a secret because it never does. When you’re doing it you don’t think when you first ask for that picture you think this is a text I can delete. No you can’t.”

Emily Ostermann, sophomore

Interview conducted by Aloera Ostermann

“Yeah, so like, some have tried to be nice and caring and have started conversations and then they’ll just be like ‘so we’re close now send photos,’ and others have just been straight up asking.”

“Just that one guy who asked me, I thought he was like, a good guy, and turns out he was really just trying to get photos.”

“It’s definitely made me trust people less about when they’re trying to be nice and what they’re trying to be nice about, like if they actually want to get to know me, or they’re just trying to get to my body.”