I grew up very aware of the consequences of teenage girls, alcohol, and teenage boys.
My parents adopted my older sisters Hayleigh and Vanessa from Spain. They were told they couldn’t have kids, but 14 years after they adopted the girls, they had me. When Vanessa was sixteen she was sexually assaulted at a college party she and Hayleigh had gone to with friends. Growing up in a college town, that wasn’t uncommon. After that my family became spokespeople for teens misuse of alcohol.
When I was fifteen, my Dad’s company upgraded, so we moved all the way from Auburn, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia. When I arrived I immediately made friends with my next door neighbor, Amanda. Two months after Amanda and I had met, she was raped after she was drugged after the homecoming dance.
My family and I helped Ams through this hard time. I always figured as long as I didn’t drink, bad things wouldn’t happen to me. But boy was I wrong. After Amanda’s rape, her parents allowed her to transfer from public school to Westminister with me.
At Westminister I met a very nice boy named Charles. It was the first night of christmas break my junior year and Charles asked me to go see a movie with him. My parents agreed as long as he had me home by 9:30. The movie was a drive in and he parked in the back. I was very uncomfortable and asked him to take me home. He said no and forced himself on me.
I was in shock and it took me days to tell my parents.
But the moral is that things like this can happen to ANYONE, whether you are drinking or not. I know it is not my fault but it is still hard to cope with. Thanks for all your support.
– Jaydanne, age 18
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