To the editor:

As a concerned member of the Bainbridge Island community and graduate of Bainbridge High School, I feel I must bring attention to the May 9 article “Police see dramatic spike of sexual assaults involving BHS students.”

While it is admirable that the Bainbridge Review would try to tackle as delicate a topic as sexual assault, I feel it has fallen far short in offering both the compassionate support survivors deserve as well as a necessary and strong condemnation of rape culture.

This piece overwhelmingly strikes me as written by someone who doesn’t understand how survivors can be repeatedly traumatized by people “just looking to spread their story” or trying to “make sure something like this won’t happen again.”

Assault survivors often suffer a wide range of emotional, physical, and psychological trauma derived from their personal trauma that can be brought to the forefront by triggers including imagery, words, symbols, or other threats. Reading pieces like these can do more harm than good by triggering survivors and perpetuating the sort of sensationalized, exploitative journalism that often accompanies articles on sexual assault and intimate violence.

Note that I don’t use the language of “victims” here because I, like many others, believe survivors deserve way more respect than we often afford them societally. We don’t need to know the intimate details of assault: What could any reader possibly gain from reading the sort of detailed police blotter-esque description of assault and rape included in this article, other than satisfying their intrusive curiosity?

The Bainbridge Review could have done a much better job of being sensitive and helpful by emphasizing the resources and reporting available to survivors and the role our community must play in supporting them, instead of satisfying their own morbid curiosity by lingering over traumatic and unnecessary details. A quick Google search could have provided the authors of this article with both appropriate language and guides to writing a sensitive and compassionate article; obviously, that did not happen here. Save the detailed play-by-play for sports, not for assault.

NANCY KARREMAN

Bainbridge Island