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I am the primary facilitator for SAPR/SHARP training for civilian employees at our site. We talked about the victims and causes and there is much controversy here. I always believed this only gets solved by education and leading by example. What other thoughts are out there?
Posted in these groups: 
Sexual Assault
Sexual Harassment
Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 10
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Yes and no. If we beat it into the system and "over-teach" it then nobody pays attention. If you teach it once a year it is just another mandatory training brief in the mix of many others, but this one is scripted until most of the others. I think the best training comes from instructors who are passionate about the subject and relate to the topic. I know we had a Soldier of mine teach a course about PTSD and he told of his personal struggles and that class was silent. Everyone was listening and everyone was focused. His words, openness, and courage allowed for others to open up and speak about their experiences. If we cookie-cut this training and do not allow for people to share their experiences or try to tailor it to their unit and Soldiers it will touch most the first time, but after that it is as they say just a "refresher". We can do better than this. It has improved, but we can and we must do better than what we are currently doing.
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Maybe it has helped as far as getting sources out to people that may need them. But overall I would say no. If someone is enough of a scumbag to sexually assault another person I don't think that taking these classes would help to change them at all.
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Unfortunately, it is not helping as much as it should be. My last unit found this movie funny. I did not. I learned that I did not realize that the military sexual assault problem is not only bigger than I thought but is also not going to go away that easily. While I tried to pay attention and actually learn from it, everyone else in my unit laughed at it the whole time. I was actually insulted that they found humor in others suffering. This problem is not taken seriously enough and it needs to be. Training and PowerPoint slides are not enough to get people to realize how serious it is. They see it as an inconvenience to their smoke breaks. The reality of how serious it is will not set in until it happens to them.
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I like the recent shift in focus away from placing the responsibility on the victim, and towards encouraging soldiers and leaders to intervene when they see a situation starting to go badly. I think that type of emphasis helps victims seek help instead of blaming themselves. It also helps soldiers and leadership focus on fostering an environment of respect and watching out for their fellow soldiers.
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SSG Peter Muse
SGT (P) Mary Conner, good insight. That is exactly what I felt when I started facilitating this. Since coming to work for Navy I am finding many females who served on ships, all with a story of harassment and assault during their tour and a CoC that handled things internally which was to sweep under the carpet. This awareness and new encouragement to intervene as bystanders should help in prevention.
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It's helped in the sense that reporting has gone up although incidents are about the same level. Soldiers are starting to trust the system.
The hardest thing is changing that soldier's mindset to stop blaming the victim and saying she/he put themselves in that situation. Granted soldiers make mistakes and can lead themselves vulnerable at times, but it is no reason to take advantage of one another.
Just close your eyes and imagine you have a 16 year old daughter and some guy comes up to talk to her. He's a spitting image of you. Does that make you happy? If not, change it.
The hardest thing is changing that soldier's mindset to stop blaming the victim and saying she/he put themselves in that situation. Granted soldiers make mistakes and can lead themselves vulnerable at times, but it is no reason to take advantage of one another.
Just close your eyes and imagine you have a 16 year old daughter and some guy comes up to talk to her. He's a spitting image of you. Does that make you happy? If not, change it.
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SSG (Join to see)
What? How can some guy who is about to assault a girl be "a spitting image of you". I am not a rapist, I am not a child molester and anyone who says that THAT person resembles me, is a/an (insert explicative). What I dislike about all the SHARP training is that it only,, ONLY focuses on men being the perp. I cannot tell you how many briefs I sit in where the civilian woman sits there and talks about ALL the cases where a man did this, a man did that. Irks the crap out of me. Women are perps just as men are but society likes to turn a blind eye to it. So when a man reports it even the police laugh him out of the office. Did you read the report in the Army Times a few months ago where the SF Soldier who was wounded was assaulted by his GF and the MP's, Police, Post COC laughed at him asking how it could happen when he is SF and she was like, 5'4"? I don't blame the victim, but I do blame the Army for establishing an environment where ANYONE can simply ACCUSE someone of a crime and that persons career is crushed. Then when the person is found innocent AFTER their career is ruined, the one who filed the complaint simply says," oh, well I thought that...." and nothing happens to them, EVEN though they had the training. I think more Soldiers use the system to get even with or destroy someone rather than actually use it for what it was designed for. Having worked at post level and reading a lot of SIR's that came across my desk, it is really discouraging to see the amount of B.S. reports that people file out of spite. Men are victims too and people should be more aware of it, and sensitive to it. If SHARP is supposed to have a positive impact then both sexes need to be represented equally and treated equally.
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MAJ (Join to see)
SSG (Join to see) I'm not talking about sexual assault. I'm talking about general treatment towards the gender you're attracted to. And SHARP goes beyond sexual assault as it includes sexual harassment. In today's world skin is in and people are seen as little more than objects. It comes down to raising young men and women with a little more respect.
No argument there also about men being victims. Mot of the time male cases go unreported because of shame or feel nothing will be done. One of the things that happen to men a lot comes from the date rape drug.
I'm sure there are some reports that could come out of spite. There's always fraud in every system. But that's why they have rape kits and CID.
No argument there also about men being victims. Mot of the time male cases go unreported because of shame or feel nothing will be done. One of the things that happen to men a lot comes from the date rape drug.
I'm sure there are some reports that could come out of spite. There's always fraud in every system. But that's why they have rape kits and CID.
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CPT (Join to see)
I will tell you as a father of 2 girls and 2 boys, most of this SHARP stuff starts at home. RESPECT. Would you want your [fill in the blank,sister, brother, sister, son, daughter, nephew, niece, friend] to endure a sexual assault? DONE! Act unto others as you would have others act unto you. If you both want it, go at it. Tomorrow morning, if you look at your mistake and say "oops." That's your mistake, not sexual assault.
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No but he'll no. It happened to me on my second deployment , I think that ant solider that rape, or sexual assault any warrior should get life in prison or death , we are surposed to be protesters of the people of the United States and who ever needs our help, so if a lower ranked soilder can not trust other solider or officers , like LT Digman from the 445 transport ion and there old retired 1st SARGENT who covered it up , I think this Armed Forces wanting to make sexial a salt crimes more harsher is a BIG F--KING JOKE I would love to go a tell the house in DC what I Think ..man I could tell y'all who called me about all this and not a thing happened
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One thing that I heard from a SHARP Rep, that I found to be very interesting, was that if a person is a predator, then no amount of training is going to change that person. This is because that person is wired that way or has some sort of mental issue that makes them that way. However, the purpose of the training is NOT for the predator, but instead it is for everyone else, so that they can understand how predators think and actions to look out for, so that person can be stopped before they ever get a chance to commit an act of sexual assault.
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