On Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, South Dakota’s Pennington County faced a tragic situation when a 15-year-old girl who had been held captive escaped her captor’s home. According to the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a report around 8am of the victim’s capture and escape, where she told investigators she had been sexually assaulted and forced to take illegal drugs.
Suspect Michael Wilson was taken into custody and is currently facing numerous charges, including drug possession, rape, and aggravated kidnapping. More often than not, crimes like rape, drugging, and abuse go unnoticed and unsolved.
Unfortunately, these types of behaviors have become extremely normalized. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 1 in 4 girls in the United States experience
sexual abuse by the age of 18. To help raise more awareness about personal safety, Stevens High School Officer Lori Fankhauser shares several tips on how to stay safe.
Five Safety Tips for Teens:
1) Always pay attention to your surroundings.
2) At night, walk with a buddy or a group of friends
3) If you feel like you’re being followed, make yourself a difficult target
a) Make lots of noise
b) Look at the person directly and ask a loud question like “ Hi, can I help you?” so
others hear you
c) Ask for help, call cops, and parents
4) Practice safety social habits
a) Never leave drinks unattended
b) Never accept open/mixed drinks
c) Never leave with a stranger/shady person
d) Don’t hang out with aggressive or pushy people
e) Never leave a friend behind, stay together
5) If you have to flee, know where you are going. Try to go to a business or public place
Another topic that should be a concern is the normality of abuse towards girls in society. “We have a very dangerous society where women have to protect themselves using tazers and pepper spray
instead of the system protecting them,” says an anonymous Stevens High School Student. Victims get blamed for their abuser’s actions every day. Stevens High School Student, Tambree Byron, says, “It’s called victim blaming for a reason. They find it unbelievable that men would do such a thing, so they blame the victim as an excuse.”
Society has made it normalized, and people are not surprised when these things happen. Officer Lori Fankhauser, “It’s so normalized because it’s so easy. No matter how many self-defense classes a girl takes, a guy is still likely to overpower her. Girls are often told to stay quiet when they should speak up and be loud about it. If someone gets very pushy or aggressive over something and starts calling you names, that’s an immediate red flag of violence. To make it less normalized, we need to continue discussing it. Don’t let things go unnoticed and keep using movements to bring
recognition”.
Authorities strongly encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed abuse to report it immediately. Victims of sexual assault can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support.
