Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["LaDue, Lee E. " <>]

I'm copying the message below because I thought the video might give you
some ideas for a theatre format.  

Also Illusion Theater out of Minneapolis trains peers to do theater -
I'm not sure what age groups but I'm sure they have a website.  

Several years ago, we used a play here that I think is excellent called
"Until Someone Wakes Up".  The contact person is Carolyn Levy and the
last I knew she was working at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. There
is a small royalty fee but very reasonable. She developed this play with
a class, giving them various assignments such as walking through the toy
isles at Target and analyzing gender - so the students wrote it.  I
especially like it because it deals with the cultural aspects of why
rape happens.  It was always very well received on our campus and our
students performed it.  It also is written in a series of vignettes, so
you can change it based on time constrictions. 


Video by teens gives straight talk on sexual assault 
Donna Halverson, Star Tribune 
April 2, 2006 
English teacher Lisa Hallberg directed, from left, Cameron Leaf-Mueller,
Kalid Hussein, Liz Erickson, Bobby Lowery, Tharmila Mo Wrang, Alicia
Apanah, Sequinna Smith and Mai La Her before reshooting a scene for the
video. 

The scene in the video plays out an uncomfortable, even frightening
scene familiar to many teenage girls. 
Three boys corner a girl near her high school locker and do a verbal
dance around her. "Hey, baby, don't you like us?" one says. "Hey, maybe
she doesn't like boys!" says another. 

Later, two students confront one of the foul-mouthed taunters. "You hurt
that girl," one girl tells him. "She didn't come to school all week." 

The edgy 40-minute video made by Spring Lake Park High School students
and funded partly by donations from nurses at Mercy and Unity hospitals
takes on plenty of other sensitive scenarios from teen life. It will be
playing soon to schools across the north metro -- and on cable TV -- as
a homegrown way to help Minnesota teens understand how common sexual
assault and sexual harassment are in their age group. 

The Spring Lake Park student actors are part of an after-school theater
group called the Voice. They're passionate about the messages in the
video. 

"The skits we're talking about, we wrote them," said Kalid Hussein, 16,
who said teens would tune out the messages if they were delivered by
adults. "We've been through it. Everybody here has gone through
something like the skits." 

Liz Erickson, 16, said she has experienced about half of the situations
in the video, "but who hasn't?" The video makes it "easier to understand
what a healthy relationship is and how you can just deal with it," she
said. "It's comforting, I guess, to understand this stuff." 

Sobering statistics 
The idea for the video came from Karine (Chip) Moe, who established the
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program at Mercy Hospital in Coon
Rapids and Unity Hospital in Fridley five years ago. 

Nurses specially trained to examine sexual assault victims have been
working in Hennepin County since the late 1970s but didn't exist in
other areas. Now Moe and six other SANE nurses are on-call at six
hospitals, including those in Buffalo and Princeton. They also cover St.
Paul's United Hospital and Children's Hospitals and Clinics of
Minnesota. 

The number of sexual assault victims the SANE nurses see each year has
increased from 88 to 206 in five years. Last year, 12- to 18-year-olds
made up 42 percent of the sexual assault victims seen by the nurses. 

The nurses have conducted awareness seminars in hospitals, nursing
schools, even the National Guard. Thinking a video would be a good way
to reach out to teens and teach them that hospitals will help victims,
not judge them, Moe approached the teen theater group in nearby Spring
Lake Park. The nurses donated $500 and emergency room physicians another
$500 to pay for it. 

"It's an important topic," said Dr. Alan Fuller, Mercy's head of
emergency room physicians. 
The Spring Lake Park High School theater group began six years ago. Two
years ago, students began writing the scripts themselves. 

When approached by Moe about the video, students and their school
advisers were intrigued by the opportunity to work with the nurses and
help students. English teachers Jennifer Bobbe and Lisa Hallberg
directed the video. 

"We hear about physical violence, but what if [teens are] just using
their words to harass, to berate, to make someone feel really bad about
themselves?" Bobbe asked. "That can be very damaging." 

The students are comfortable with themselves and one another and are not
afraid to take on difficult topics, said Pete Yelle, who supervises
after-school and summer programs at Spring Lake Park as youth services
manager. "I think they're really putting themselves out there, and not
many kids would do that." 

In one shoot, it took four hours to get two minutes of video, said T. J.
Tronson, the technical producer. But, he said, "The kids just never
quit, no whining, no attitudes, nothing." 

"They really want to make a difference," Bobbe said. 
The video is titled "Sticks and Stones." Scenarios acted out by the
students deal with rape, gay-bashing, bullying, name calling and
controlling behavior. 

Schools in Anoka, Wright, Sherburne and Itasca counties, as well as
schools in Maple Grove and Champlin, will get free copies of the video
in mid-April. Nurses will be available to conduct discussions if a
school wishes, Moe said. 

Some of the language the students use is R-rated, but both they and
their parents are OK with that. 
"The language is a bit strong, but so is the world they live in," said
Ray Smith, father of Sequinna Smith, 15, a group member. He said he
hopes the video will give direction to kids who confront an in-your-face
world in which they're asked to make tough decisions on the spot. 

To purchase the video: The cost is $20. For more information:

 
Donna Halvorsen * 612-673-1709


Lee LaDue
Assistant Director/Coordinator of the Gender Violence Prevention Office
St. Cloud State University Women's Center
720 4th Ave. S.
St. Cloud, MN 56301
320/308-3995

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