During assembly today, students learned the legal and social effects that come with cyberbullying and sexual assault.

Carrie LeRoy, intellectual property transactions council member at Skadden, a law firm that has experience handling cases of underage sexual activity online, spoke to the student body.

“It is really important that girls know that they have rights,” LeRoy said. “We need to let teens know that you need to talk to an adult, or else you may lose a friend, and how to respond to these situations.”

Bringing attention to issues is a priority for educating students, according to school counselor Annie Egan.

“We brought her out not in reaction to anything, but because it is an important topic,” Egan said. “The more outside people we have to highlight it in different expertise is what we want to be.”

Students were given paper handouts with information about how to protect themselves from cyberbullying and sexual assault.

“I think it was really important because a lot of us don’t know the technicalities and the legal part,” junior Madison Stetter said. “I think that now we know the consequences, that makes a difference. Instead of panicking and not doing anything, we know what to do.”

Students can find more information from the It Gets Better Project and Trauma Recovery Center.

“The statistics don’t lie, and the statistics tell us how these affect girls more than boys,” LeRoy said. “I have taught this to coed groups as well, and boys always ask the question ‘Don’t girls just make this stuff up?’ and that statistic doesn’t exist, so it is important for girls to be educated.”