And that's what students from
the Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center (WACTC) and Central High School in Providence will be doing this month when public service ads about sexual assault awareness air on Rhode Island radio and television outlets.The ads are the result of the "Your Voice, Your View Contest" sponsored by Day One, a Providence sexual assault and trauma resource program, and its partners, radio stations WPRO-FM and WWKX, Fox TV and Rhode
Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch.
The first-place entries to be broadcast include a video spot created by WACTC students MacGyver Duarte, a junior from Woonsocket, and Cory Souliere, a senior from Cumberland, and
a radio spot by Central High students Jorge Acevedo, Ferbitz Albizu, Cristina Domenech, Tommy Gbarbea, Estenfani Martinez and Yosa Yon. Awards were also presented to second- and third-place finishers in the contest.
Duarte and Souliere's video, played during the award announcement Tuesday at WACTC, began with the two students walking in a school hallway talking about a party one had attended with friends.
"How was it?" Duarte asks Souliere as the two students walk along a section of lockers.
"It was all right. But there was this guy there and he was with his girlfriend and he was trying to get her to do
something she didn't want to do," Souliere responds.
"What did you do?" Duarte asks next. Souliere's response, "I didn't do anything," freezes him in mid-step as Duarte walks on and tells his
listeners, "Guys, don't be like my friend here who didn't do anything. Not doing anything is part of the problem," Duarte says as the spot concludes.
The work earned the two students plaques and a cash prize of $400 to be split between them.
Souliere said the students, members of Susan Votto's Cox New Media class, came
up with the idea for their video while walking in the hallway at school and talking."I think we are trying to tell people not to be a bystander and that if you see something
happen don't be afraid to say something," Souliere said.
Duarte said he is pleased with the video he and Souliere produced and also believes it will make other teenagers think about sexual violence and how it can
be prevented.
"What we are saying is that you should be strong when something happens and say something. Don't just let it happen," Duarte said. "I hope this will make them think about sexual violence
and teens will stop it when it happens."
The Central High School students won their first place award and $400 prize for a radio spot featuring a group of students gathered for the old kissing game, Spin the
Bottle.
As the group of boys and girls laugh and joke about the game, one of the girls, Lori, states "I'm not sure, guys," when bottle points to her.
"I'm not feeling this game. I'll just pass on this," she says in the spot.
But one of the teens, John, persists and chides her with "Why are you chickening out?" and "Hurry up, we don't have
all day."
"Back up, John. Stop kissing me," Lori says as she is again pressured to go along.
"Why play the game, Lori, if you don't want to go through with it," John says.
As Lori tells John to stop touching her leg, another friend steps in with an admonishment for John to "just chill, man."
"What's your problem?" John replies. "We was just playing a game."
"She said she don't feel like playing the game, so respect her and knock it off," the second teen says before gaining a
"I know, I know, you're right," from his friend and an apology to Lori.
The spot ends with one of the teens telling listeners their help is needed to "stop sexual violence," and offering Day One's
Web site, www.dayoneri.org, and a telephone number for more information on the effort.
The first-place projects were among a total of 29 entries submitted from 94 students, according to Peg Langhammer, Day One
executive director.
The entries came from 10 Rhode Island schools where Day One held workshops to educate students about sexual violence prevention, she said.
The program also included visits to schools by
the WWKX and WPRO street teams, with the music and radio personalities spending lunchtime with the students to help generate interest in the effort.
As part of its Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities, Day One
will highlight a National Crime Victimization Survey finding that a sexual assault occurs every two-and-a-half minutes in the United States, Langhammer said.
The statistic will be visible on an Interstate 95 billboard
in Providence under another bid by the group to obtain public attention to the problem, she said.
"Some of the biggest barriers to putting an end to sexual violence are people's attitudes and behaviors," she
said. "Our prevention efforts in school focus on making people aware of these destructive views and helping them to rethink and dispel some of the myths they encounter. Once you change your own mind about the issue, you can
begin to change others."
The two first-place ads both have "a strong prevention message," Langhammer said. "They encourage young people, particularly men, not to be bystanders to sexual violence.
When you see something that seems inappropriate, or makes you feel uncomfortable, do something about it. Say something. Be a part of the solution."
While helping to present the awards handed out Tuesday, Kim
Zandy, a WPRO radio personality, told the students that while it may be frightening for a teen to consider speaking out about sexual violence, it is a better course of action than doing nothing.
"The effects of
you not doing something last so much longer than if you do something. By being brave and standing up to do something, you are going to find people will support you even more," she said.
WWKX radio personality Joey
Foxx thanked the participating students for showing the "courage to stand up and do the right thing."
He also pointed out that while the hip-hop music played on the radio comes across as a "lifestyle and
a culture," young people should also keep in mind that lyrics and statements, sometimes violent and sexually suggestive, made by the artists "have to be taken with a grain of salt" and are not necessarily a guide for
living.
"It can be fun to listen to, but we don't always have to agree with the lyrics and the content," he said.
Lynch, who noted he has spent time visiting schools with the radio personalities
to help get Day One's message across, said this year's crop of radio and television spots show real creativity and media savvy by the student producers.
The public service announcements are good enough to have been
done by a high-cost big city advertising firm, a point the students should remember when they start looking for future careers, he said.
They also are helping to put a focus on a problem that is "devastating"
to the many victims of sexual violence, Lynch said.
"This is an area we are not talking about enough, and especially in schools," he said. The students in the contest used their talents to "create a
message that will go straight to the issue," he said.
Lynch also credited Day One for all the work it has done over the years to help the victims of sexual violence and to support them as his own agency prosecutes
cases in the legal system, a process that can take up to two years at times.
"No one's been more of an advocate for the victims and no one has done more to help the people in that system than Day One," he
said.
Tom Gray of Fox Television said his organization will begin airing Duarte's and Souliere's video four to five times a day on both Channel 11 on Cox and Channel 22 on Comcast.
The spots will appear during Fox programming between 4 and 7 p.m., he said.
"I was really happy to see what they came up with as a message," Gray said. "It was very clear, very concise and right to the
point. It says, 'Hey, think about what you are doing,' and hopefully that will cause teens to make an effort to change opinions."
