- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

Christian Routenburg-Evans is a Grade 12 student at St. Mary's High School - an articulate, confident young man. The fact that he has won first place in the Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Command public speaking contest is not a surprise.

The content of his winning speech is, unfortunately, not surprising – except for the fact that is coming from Christian himself.

In Grade 9, Christian was sexually assaulted by a fellow student in the washroom at his school.

Speeches are meant to be heard rather than read, so here is the winning speech.

Please be aware: Christian addresses the issue of student-on-student sexual assault and his own experience as a victim.

When the assault was reported, school administrators told the family it was a police issue.

Christian reports being assaulted twice more by the same student before the school schedule could be re-arranged to put them in separate classes.

Bruce Grey District Catholic School board policy aligns with the safe schools amendments to the Ontario Education Act that came into effect on February 1, 2008 – “the principal is required to suspend a student for up to 20 school days if the principal believes that the student has engaged in an activity for which the student might ultimately be expelled by the school board”.

This includes committing sexual assault, defined by the Supreme Court as “an act of a sexual nature that violates the sexual integrity of the victim”.

The school principal had a professional duty to complete their own investigation and enforce consequences.

The legislation, regulations, policies and protocols are all clear and unequivocal – the goal is to keep students safe in our school communities.

Yet the student, who was subsequently charged by police with sexual assault after their investigation, and put under a Peace Bond by the court, reportedly was never required to miss a day of school or a single school hockey game, as he was never suspended. We do not know what help he received.

Presumably to protect his privacy, the person in charge of scheduling at the school was not told, so Christian was put in a class with his abuser the following semester.

This was not only triggering for him but put the perpetrator in violation of a court-ordered Peace Bond. That was quickly corrected when it was brought to the administration's attention.

Christian, formerly a straight A student, became anxious and depressed, struggling to get credits and even to go to school

He was taunted and physically bullied as payback for lying – the assumption being that if it had really been serious, the boy who did it would not have been at school.

Even boys who later revealed that they were victims of the same student told Christian later they had felt too intimidated to speak.

Christian had come to believe that speaking up only made things worse, and that the school system could not, or would not, protect him.

We know the consequences of sexual assault on young people.

We know from victim impact statements and testimony in court, from academic studies of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, from powerful first-person essays, and from courageous speeches.

This must not be, in Christian's words “simply the price you pay for being female, or to belong to a team, or to fit in with the popular group at school.”

Each time Christian has given his speech, he receives a powerful response.

People have lined up to tell him their own stories. Some have kept their own assault secret for decades.

Christian has been asked to give his speech at schools, to principals' groups and as professional development for educators, though notably not in the school board in which his own assault occurred.

Thank you for your courage Christian. We all need to speak up, ask questions and demand transparency for you and for all all victims and future victims of peer-on-peer assault.

“The price of silence is too high.”

If you are experiencing violence or need to talk to someone about your own past experiences, or want additional information to be able to support someone who has been sexually assaulted, here are some resources:

• Violence Prevention Grey Bruce
• The Men's Program  (including one-to-one counselling for men who experienced sexual violence as children or adolescents)
• Male Surivivors of Sexual Abuse

If you would like Christian to speak to your organization please contact him at [email protected]

Note: some corrections to timelines have been made since first publication May 14.