A 15-year-old girl was shot in the arm while she was walking to school because she ignored the catcalls by two men. The girl told officials that: “They asked me how old I was and some other questions I don’t feel comfortable saying,”.
“I’m still in shock because I wouldn’t think that somebody would do something crazy like that — just shoot a kid for no reason, for no response,” says the girl who is a Westbury High School sophomore
The men were reportedly driving in a gray SUV alongside the girl when they started asking her lewd questions. The girl, however, just ignored the and continued walking, until she heard a loud noise and “looked at my arm and it was throbbing and it was hot. I saw the hole in my arm and I just started to cry,”
This isn’t an isolated incident. According to a study done across 22 countries and involving 1600 women, a majority of the women surveyed had experienced catcalling before they turned 17. Also more than half of the women reported that they had been fondled or groped without their permission. This shows that sexual harassment in all its forms is truly a problem for women all over the world and from a very young age.
“She was rejecting them, so I guess they got jealous and shot her in the arm,” said a classmate of the victim.
This incident has shocked the school and the whole community and the police are currently searching for the two men responsible. Just the fact that these two men catcalled a 15-year-old girl on her way to school and continued to even after she showed absolutely no interest in responding to them in anyway is wrong enough. But that these two men then decide to shoot her in her arm with a pellet gun, is completely and utterly unacceptable.
No one, no matter their age should have to fear violent attacks because they don’t want to respond to people sexually harassing them.
