Niles North held its first student awareness workshops for every class last week on the issue of sexual assault, dating violence, cyber safety, and bullying. There were some high points of the assemblies, but they left many students on edge.

“There were some instances during a few presentations that clearly violated our Viking Value of ‘Be Respectful’ to some of our students and staff members,” Edwards wrote in the email to the staff.

Two incidents during the workshops led the student body and the administration to be on edge. During the freshman assembly, the speaker threatened a student, who was on the phone during the presentation, to throw the student’s phone in the trash. The other incident involved the speaker disrespecting a staff member embarrassing them in front of the auditorium filled with students.  James Edwards, principal, made it clear in a mass email to the staff and then another email to the students a couple days later that these behaviors are not acceptable at Niles North.

Since the Viking Values have been enacted in our school it has been nebulous how these values will change student behavior. These values were made by the school community committee over the summer. “We want the students to define these values,” Edwards said.

Students at Niles North have wanted the administration to talk about sexual assault with students.  “The message is important to deliver to students. There is much misinformation that surrounds sexual assault and rape, and these lies perpetuate the conditions that create these situations. Our school has been silent on these issues and education could create change,” Maggie Lavengood, senior, said.

Additional problems with the assemblies include lack of preparation of the participants about the intensity of topics to be discussed and inadequate time afterward to reflect on the discussions.

“Discussing raw topics can trigger anxiety in vulnerable students and no assembly should put a kid at risk of being brought back to trauma,” the group Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR) wrote in a letter criticizing the assemblies. 

A common criticism is that frequently speakers come to talk to the student body about important issues, but the school tends not to follow up with the issues raised, and they consequently are forgotten.

The students in SOAR have been meeting about ways to be proactive for assemblies like these to make them more productive. One way to address some of the problems with these events is to involve the students in the planning. By having students run events like these, the message will be more effective and the Viking Values will more likely to be followed.

“When students get involved and contribute their opinions, things change for the better. If we seek student engagement in the planning and implementation of school assemblies they will improve,” Hannah Neiderman, junior, said.

Edwards is turning to student activities for followup to the topics of the assemblies. A club is forming for sexual assault education and support. Other clubs are also starting dialogue about the issues brought up by the speakers.

Featured image courtesy of blog.utc.edu