Kansas School District Students Stage Walkout Trying to Force District to Address Sexual Assault Allegations

Students are urging their education leaders to take action. They claim that the district in Overland Park, Kansas, has ignored sexual assault and harassment allegations on and off school grounds. 

Now, hundreds of teenagers and many brave women are speaking up about sexual assault.

"We're angry, all of us," a senior named Marion Waltrip said. "We're angry, and we're tired of it."

With their recent impactful demonstration, hundreds of students are hoping to get the attention of adults.

"We're kids still, and we want to be protected by the adults who should be in charge," Waltrip explained. "And they're not doing the jobs that they shouldn't be doing."

"It's happened more than once," another senior named Esperanza Rhea added, "When I was 13."

A spokesperson for the school says administrators are aware of their concerns and told The Kansas City Star they take every report of sexual abuse or assault seriously and have policies in place for when there is a report. 

"People want to know, okay, I made this allegation, I want to know what happened. And that makes sense because all of us, we want closure," David Smith, the chief communications officer of Shawnee Mission School District, said.

"The challenge is that because of privacy issues, the building isn't able to go back and say this is what we did, and that can be frustrating."

Moving forward, the school says it's planning conversations between students and counselors. 

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