Local mother and daughter working to fight sexual harassment at the middle school level

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Name calling is something that's been happening forever in schools. It may not seem like a big deal but one local mother and daughter say they're not taking it anymore.

Rorie Mortensen is 13-years-old and when a boy came up to her at school and asked her indirectly how much it would cost to have sex with her, she didn't know what to do.

"I asked him why he thought it was funny or why he thought it was appropriate. He said he didn't know, he just did it to make other people laugh," said Rorie.

But then a week later, the joke went too far.

"He said 'oh look, it's the slut of Christmas past,' so I ran to the bathroom because I didn't know how to handle the situation," Rorie said.

Rorie and her mother say they contacted the school.

"I said the first time I let her handle, the second time something has to happen here. They said we take this very seriously, there will be consequences for this young man and at this point, they're still sharing an art class," said Erika Funk, Rorie's mother.

Since then, Rorie has gotten a written apology but says that's not enough since she knows many other girls including her friends deal with the same thing.

Rorie and her mother say they want to start a group to give young girls the chance to talk to one another about how they deal with things like this.

"We can stand up for ourselves and we have the same amount of power that anybody else does," Rorie said.

Pilgrim Park Middle School gave us the following statement,