Sexual Violence at Church Schools

This episode is practically geared towards LDS church school (BYU, BYU-I, BYU-Hawaii, LDS Business College, etc) students, prospective students, and their loved ones. In this, we include parents of students admitted to church schools or those who anticipate their children will likely go to church schools.  In light of recent news regarding rape on BYU campus, many Mormons transitioning into unorthodoxy are asking what they can do to help. Kristy and her husband Rolf (researcher who specializes in Educational Policy) combine their experiences at BYU and relative expertises in psychology and education to offer stories, advice, and hope. Kristy candidly shares her experience with Title IX as a naive BYU freshman experiencing sexual harassment, and she also reads from and analyzes another woman's honor code letter (with permission). They discuss the implications of the "just world" hypothesis to which human cognition naturally gravitates, and what we can do about it once we notice it's happening: responding either rationally (acceptance that bad thing happen to good people, doing what you can to alleviate others' suffering) or irrationally (denial, justification). Links mentioned in episode: President Worthen's video interview Bednar's "Quick to Observe" Talk on Women's Earrings and Obedience Lynn Robbin's moist cookie devotional Blaire's story on Feminist Mormon Housewives End A Rape On Campus   Kristy with her BYU ID taken in 2002 when she entered BYU as a freshman, and the year she was first sexually harassed by another student: