For Christian Routenburg-Evans, 18, the first year of high school was not the carefree learning experience he’d expected. Within the first semester, he said a fellow student started harassing and sexually assaulting him.
By the second semester, the Owen Sound teen says the sexual assault only got worse and included the student cornering him in the boys’ bathroom on multiple occasions.
He says the experience and what happened after he spoke out shaped his high school experience. He is speaking about it now in hopes it helps other students and enacts change within the school system, a system he said failed him by not holding his assailant to account.
“I didn’t tell anybody because I was embarrassed, and it’s something that I also didn’t realize that it’s not a normal thing until I really thought about it,” Routenburg-Evans says.
“I was a 90-plus student when I entered high school, and then I was struggling to get credit and hardly passing classes. My mental health was declining. I suffer from depression, PTSD and anxiety from that situation, and it’s also changed me in ways that I am not even sure about to this day.”
Routenburg-Evans turned his story about his sexual assault into a speech that won the Royal Canadian Legion’s provincial public speaking contest for the senior division 2023, but it’s taken him a while to get to a point where he feels comfortable talking about it.
Reporting the assault
“It was a week or two after the fact that he sexually assaulted me. We were at a parent-teacher meeting, and my teacher was questioning why I wasn’t staying on track and not focusing in class. I said because I was staying away from this certain student, and I was afraid that he was going to continue touching me,” Routenburg-Evans says.
After admitting what had happened to his parents and school administrators, Routenburg-Evans says they reported the incident to school administrators and the police.
Routenburg-Evans said the assault was brushed off by school administrators with a minimal response.
He says the student assault him at least two more times after it was reported to school administrators.
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The director of education for the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board congratulated Routenburg-Evans for his award but said it could not comment specifically on the incident.
“We take the safety of all students and staff seriously and we follow our student discipline and police protocols. We are not able to speak specifically about a specific incident, its investigation or results, because they involve the personal information of students,” said Gary O’Donnel.
Routenburg-Evans says his family would eventually drop charges against the student instead of going through a lengthy court process to ensure a peace bond could be put in place requiring the student to keep a certain distance from him.
“I couldn’t concentrate in school, and I was always worrying about what was going to happen to me in between classes or after school. I wasn’t sure if people were going to follow me and try to hurt me because I spoke up about something that happened,” he says.
Bullied for speaking out
Routenburg-Evans says that because the school’s action towards the student was minimal, many of his classmates doubted that anything had happened to him.
“Peers would verbally harass me in many ways and sometimes physically.”
He says students started rumours that what happened was “a gay encounter” or just ordinary boy behaviour, not sexual assault.
“When I was sexually assaulted in the continuous years after the fact, I would beat myself up inside because I didn’t defend myself because I was frozen in place. It’s just so hard to get around that mental factor that I couldn’t do anything,” he says.
The Canadian Centre for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse estimates one in six men have experienced some form of sexual abuse during their lifetime.
The agency notes on its website that it is difficult for men who were sexually abused as a child to come forward and that limited resources are available that specifically focus on the issues men face in these situations.
“Sexual assault with boys is seen as something that happens in the locker room, it’s supposed to be normal, and it’s not something that is talked about enough for people to realize that they’ve been in these certain situations and it experience sexual assault they just don’t know it because it’s just a normal thing to happen.”
Sharing the experience to help others
Routenburg-Evans says he has worked hard to not feel ashamed about what happened to him.
“I’m hoping to start speaking at many school boards in Ontario because they need to change the way they deal with sexual assault. I feel like a lot of it’s brushed under the carpet and is not as widely talked about at all in schools.”
He hopes that his speaking out makes it easier for victims, especially males, to feel comfortable reaching out for help.
“The main point is it’s not your fault. You have to go and tell somebody and talk to a close family member or friend, just to let them know how you’re doing because this could be affecting you inside, and it’s just going to get worse (as) you get older.”
After performing his speech in the Legion’s competition, Routenburg-Evans says several men approached him to share their own stories of sexual abuse.
“I think that students need to know that they all deserve a safe school environment and shouldn’t be scared of who’s coming behind them or what’s going to happen to them if they speak out about this stuff,” he says.
“You are stronger than you realize, and your voice matters.”
Victims of sexual assault can find help through the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868, the Victim Support Line 1-888-579-2888, or Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Provincial Crisis and Support Line 1-866-887-0015.
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