Wrecked by Maria Padian is an extremely
powerful book about sexual assault on campus which will speak to high school
students, especially girls. Here, Jenny, a quiet student, goes out drinking and
subsequently accuses a fellow student (Jordan) of rape. She asks her freshman roommate,
Haley, to act as confidante and advisor in the campus hearing process. The
situation quickly becomes even more complicated because of Haley’s attraction
to “math dude” Richard who lives in the same campus housing as Jordan. College
administrators, parents and lawyers all add adult perspective, although their emotions
and motivations are often in conflict with the students’ own choices.
Haley and Richard tell most
of the post-party events in alternating third person chapters, with occasional flashbacks
to the fateful night. I agree with the starred review from Booklist which described Wrecked as having “a swift,
excellently crafted plot, exceedingly readable prose, and painfully relatable
characters.” School Library Journal calls Wrecked “a book that all young men
and women should read,” recommending it for students in grade 10 and up. Our
copy is on order.
Numerous sources and
statistics are available about this important subject. In addition to the media
coverage of the Brock Turner case at Stanford, CQ Researcher has published a recent 2014 report and Jon Krakauer’s
Missoula provides another
(non-fiction) overview of college sexual assault. More information:
- Journalist’s Resource: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/sexual-assault-rape-us-college-campuses-research-roundup
- Campus Sexual Violence Resource List from the CDC http://www.nsvrc.org/saam/campus-resource-list
- NPR article on what High Schools can do http://www.npr.org/2016/08/09/487497208/to-prevent-sexual-assault-schools-and-parents-start-lessons-early
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