Dear Editor:
My name is Kira Grifka, and I am a student currently enrolled in honors English at Chelsea High School. As part of our coursework, we recently composed open letters, and I am eager to share mine with the Chelsea Update community.
To the boy in my 8th grade history class:
In March 2024, I officially founded my own 501C3 nonprofit, Shape, which stands for Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention and Education. Though it is exciting and has given me many great opportunities, starting this club at 16 years old is exactly what is wrong with the world.
I was in our 8th grade history class walking up to the front to get a paper. I was wearing sweatpants and a full-length t-shirt. I sat back down to a Snapchat message. The message read “your b00bs jiggled” with many cherry emojis.
It had been sent by you, my guy “friend.” I had been used to constant harassment, but something about you, my “friend,” saying such things made me want to wear baggy clothes everyday.
I told you to stop, but you thought it was sooo funny. How was it funny? Was it because I was more developed than the other girls? Maybe because you knew I wouldn’t tell on you?
Well…. I did. I told my friends about what you said and even though I told them I don’t care, they dragged me down to the counseling office. I told the counselor about what you said, and she said she’d “take care of it.”
To make a long story short, you didn’t get in trouble, and the middle school had yet again failed at stopping you at the start. But you later got suspended in high school for doing the same thing to another girl. She was far more popular, and the high school took care of it.
How is it that people don’t seem to care about sexual harassment, despite it being the leading cause of sexual assault and rape? How come people say that women can’t take jokes, when it’s not even funny? How do we stop sexual assault, when y’all can’t stop sexual harassment?
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, nationwide, 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their life. That’s 136.566 million women and 71.294 million men. In the United States alone, if everyone held hands, it would be enough to circle the world five times! And yet, how is this a joking matter?
Well. it’s not. Also according to RAINN, every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. Every 68 seconds. 68 SECONDS?!?! Are we not listening to victims???
How do we stop this overwhelming issue when we can’t even stop sexual harassment??
Because of what you did and all the sexual harassment and assault that goes on daily, I wanted to do something. I figured if people like you wouldn’t stop, I’d try helping.
Going into this, I was naive and didn’t know anything. I’ve learned a lot from the past year and counting. This has led me to help all types of teenagers with anything from just learning what sexual harassment is, to getting them help through hotlines and/or counselors.
So, thank you?
Kira Grifka
