Drug Abuse

Sheridan:

Date rape? Wow…by the title alone I’m already interested. By attention getter do you mean how to begin the speech?

Angelo M:

Mike Tyson once uttered “I’ll rape you till you love me.”

Mike O:

you could always wear your sluttiest sexiest outfit, then ask all the guys in the class if they think its hot, then ask if they think your begging to get laid. Then segway into your topic and how that attitude leads to so much date rape.

mark:

Here’s an attention getter

About 200,000 victims of rape or sexual assaults are reported each year in the US. Only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are estimated to be reported reported to the police. Which means that there could be over 1.25 million cases of rape EVERY YEAR in the us.

I cannot find what percent of the above would be date rape but I’m sure those numbers are available

buckleyyelkcub:

Start with a scream. It will get everyones attention. Then follow up with “Thats the sound of rape.” Something like that anyway.

rotorhead:

Give the speech as another person.

Walk up and say :”Hello, my name is Alice. I am your friend, your next door neighbor, your babysitter. I am the girl who sat in the front row of class. I am your sister. I am your daughter.

And I was raped on the first date with a guy I thought I knew.”

Tell the story. You were excited to go out with a boy you had liked a lot. How he is popular and well liked. Tell them you bought a new outfit with what money you had and prepared all week for the date. How everything went well until he took you to his house and no one was home. How it went badly after that.

Tell them how you are ashamed, embarrassed, scared. How you cry, how you can’t face your parents, your friends, school; how you jump when a guy touches you. How the guy won’t even talk to you but all his friends look at you in a way that makes you very uncomfortable, like they know what happened.

How you are afraid you might be pregnant.

Ask if anyone knows why anyone would want to hurt someone like that?

Tell them how you wish you could have your life back.

Good luck.

RobertR:

I’m a Rape Crisis Counselor in Illinois, and there are a few different ways we like to start presentations to groups:

1) Listing 7 or 8 different actions, and asking someone to rate them from worst to least inappropriate. Things ranging from “Using a knife and rope to forcibly have sex with someone” to “Pressuring a girlfriend until she has sex with you”, etc. For larger groups we have a different person hold a sign that says each, with someone directing them where to stand (gets more people involved). After they’re in order, ask someone where the line is where it’s “rape” or “not rape”. Fact is just about 100% of people will say things aren’t which are (such as “Pressuring a girlfriend until she has sex.” Technically rape, and can be extremely psychologically damaging). This tactic is more about rape than “date rape”, but you could substitute things like “Having sex with someone who says it’s okay, after they said no sober”, “Getting a girl drunk to try and make out with her / have sex with her etc.”, or “Slipping a drug into someone’s drink when they’re not looking” (all 3 are considered Aggravated Sexual Assault in Illinois, similar charges in most states).

2) Asking someone to define “rape” or “date rape”. It has the same goal as #1 in that it addresses that most people do not understand what is appropriate and what is not, as most people won’t get it right. Everyone knows that you can’t jump out from the bushes and force someone to have sex with you, or drug somebody, but things like the aforementioned “having sex with a girl who says no sober but yes drunk” is still rape and most people don’t understand that. Ignorance is the greatest challenge of people who advocate against this sort of thing, and making people stop and think about what specifically is okay and not can be really enlightening to people. For the record, rape can be defined as forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object. This includes ANY body part that was inserted including fingers, tongues (including kissing), etc. Forced doesn’t have to be someone physically overpowering someone, it can be ignoring someone’s desire to not have sex or stop whatever is happening, or preventing them from resisting such as by using threats, pressuring them, using drugs or weapons on them, or other means.

3) Statistics, like others said, can be wonderful. Start with some that are more shocking, and you can reel people in. Things like “1 in 4 women will be sexually abused in America”, “1 in 6 will be sexually assaulted”, “Someone is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes in America” (I’ve given presentations where I’ve started with saying that fact, and updating the class every 2 minutes that “someone else was just sexually assaulted”). “73% of women know their assailant from before that day”, and only 6% of rapists will ever spend time in jail” are also good ones. Check out http://www.rainn.org if you need a source. That website will also let you look up the local Crisis center by city or ZIP code.

I’ve tried some other things, but for a short presentation I’ve found those are the ones that work most effectively. If you want to contact me post an update to your question with your email and I can give you a lot more information. Hope it all goes well!!