An Owen Sound student won first place at a speaking competition, turning his experience with sexual assault into an award winning speech.
Grade 12 St. Mary’s High School student Christian Routenburg-Evans achieved first place at the Royal Canadian Legion Provincial Public Speaking competition on May 6 in Stouffville.
“I had a really good experience down in Stouffville at the speaking competition,” says Routenburg-Evans. “I have been doing public speaking for nine years now and it is my first time making it to this level.”
Routenburg-Evans’ speech talks about his experience with being a victim of student-on-student sexual assault.
He says when he was 14-years-old, he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom of his highschool, which had various impacts, including not being able to focus in class, being hypervigilent in hallways and being on alert.
“It was stuff in my head that made me feel like everybody was out to get me because I was the one who spoke up about this sexual assault experience that I had in the school. The student who sexually assaulted me in the bathroom was charged by the police and was not suspended by the principal at the time,” says Routenburg-Evans. “Because he wasn’t suspended, his friends didn’t believe that he actually sexually assaulted me and that led to bullying, verbal abuse and just made me feel like I didn’t want to be in the school at all, and they took every opportunity to make my life miserable.”
He says in the past, his public speaking would centre around various topics, including history and agriculture. He says this speech, however, is something he can relate to and spread his message by putting emotion into his speaking.
In an email from his mother Jody-Lynn, she says every time he delivers his speech, audiences rise to their feet in a standing ovation, with people coming to share their own stories of sexual assault.
“At the speech competition after I came back from the stage after saying my speech, I had many older people from the older community come up to me in tears crying, telling me how they had never talked to someone because they are embarrassed about what happened to them and they always thought it was their fault. After my speech, they realized it was okay to talk about it,” says Routenburg-Evans.
To those who have experienced sexual assault, Routenburg-Evans wants to say it is not the victim’s fault and recommends telling someone or finding support.
“It is just as easy to tell somebody about it and reach out for help and to share that burden with someone else and talk about it with someone so it is not that big of a burden on your back, and you are stronger than you realize and your voice matters,” says Routenburg-Evans.
Jody-Lynn says she and Christian’s father are both extremely proud of their son.
“He has been to hell and back and he was able to somehow find strength and make a difference. He used this experience to make a difference and be a voice for people who don’t have that voice. We are extremely proud of him, he is a really special kid,” says Jody-Lynn.
He says he hopefully wants to pursue public speaking and attend other school boards across the province and speak at assemblies.