Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg will swear in Anna LaCroix as Rhode Island’s fourth ‘Governor for a Day’ Thursday morning at 9:45am in the Governor’s State Room. Anna, an eighth grader from Chariho Middle School, won this year’s contest with an essay about the importance of sexual assault prevention, equal pay for women and the need for gun control. Anna will spend the day with Governor Raimondo.
Here’s Anna’s winning essay:
If I was the Governor of Rhode Island for a day I would help eliminate the rates of sexual assault, change the gun regulation, and help close the gap of inequality in the workplace.
First I would help decrease the rates of sexual assault. Sexual assault is a major problem today as it has been for hundreds of years. We, the state of Rhode Island can help eliminate the rates of sexual assault by modifying college programs for middle and secondary school health classes starting in seventh grade. Some programs that we could modify or use as guideline include 20:1, The Women’s Program, The Men’s Program, and Bringing in the Bystander. In the present day about every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted, and about every 8 minutes a child is. If every child from a young age can learn about the harms of sexual assault, consent, and bystander intervention starting at the age of twelve, I believe the rates of sexual assault would go down tremendously. In doing this, Rhode Island can set an example for the rest of the country on how we can prevent sexual assault. This idea for eliminating the rates of sexual assault is articulated in my TedX Talk at https://www.uri.edu/tedx/talks/anna-lacroix-limiting-rates-of-sexualassault/
In addition to help eliminate the rates of sexual assault, if I was the governor of Rhode Island for I day I would help change the gun regulation. This can be attained by tightening the background checks to own a gun so that all owners of guns in Rhode Island are allowed to legally fit to own a gun. Even though 0 school shootings have happened in Rhode Island, making it harder for people to get the hands on semi-automatic firearms would help make Rhode Island a safer place.
