Stories of Violence Touch Students

The students at Cleveland High School in Reseda were nearly silent as they examined some 60 T-shirts hung shoulder-to-shoulder at the school’s quad area Wednesday.

The reason for their silence was the depiction of women’s personal stories of sexual violence written on the T-shirts.

Written on the shirts were such things as “He hurt me. I hate, I hurt,” “I have survived domestic violence” and “Shatter the silence and stop the violence please!”

Some T-shirts described the sexual assault crimes in more graphic detail; others used profanity to express anger and rage.

“You really have no idea what [the victims] are feeling unless you read what is written on the T-shirts,” said Dominique Gonfard, 17, a Cleveland junior.

The T-shirts were made by survivors, friends and family members of victims of sexual violence as part of the Clothesline Project, sponsored by the National Organization for Women.

“Each shirt represents someone’s life or a part of someone’s life that is painful,” said Cleveland junior Elizabeth Lincoln, 16, vice president of the student organization Women in Today’s Society, which has brought the Clothesline Project to the school every spring since 1996.

The shirts displayed at Cleveland were recent additions to the project, said Rachel Becker, society president.

“These were crimes all committed during the past few months,” said Becker, 18, a senior. “This is alarming, because although domestic crime takes place every day, most people never say a word.”

In addition to the Clothesline Project, the Women in Today’s Society also organized seminars on sexual assault, abortion, women in politics, AIDS, gender issues and homosexuality, women in religion and men in feminism.

“By bringing these issues to our campus, we can start at the high school level on increasing education and awareness,” Becker said.