Buhain, Venice
Originally published by Crosscut.com
Alex Su of Newport High School told her teachers and administrators that she felt unsafe about her ex-boyfriend, and she did not expect to become a rallying point for the entire region.
“Before this happened to them, no one would think about this situation. I never thought about the outcome,” she said.
But what happened after the 17-year-old Sue posted on Instgram that she was frustrated by how the school handled her situation, sparking protests in high schools from Bellevue to Seattle to Kenmore about the district’s response to student sexual assault reports. .
Students in the region and across the country are asking schools to respond more strongly to students who report dating violence and sexual assault.
“Students are fed up,” said Shiwali Patel, director of the Department of Justice for Student Survivors of the National Women’s Law Center and senior legal counsel. “We have seen this in strikes, college campuses, high schools, and even middle schools. This is the call of the students. They need to be protected and they need the care of the school.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teen dating violence is common. Approximately one in ten female high school students and approximately one in 14 male high school students report that they have experienced physical violence from a date. The CDC also pointed out that dating violence includes “psychological assault,” stalking, and sexual violence.
In a recent protest at Bellevue High School, students demanded changes to the district’s harassment, intimidation, and bullying report form; every high school in the Bellevue District had a sexual assault counselor, and improvements regarding consent, grooming, and partner violence Education.
‘Not surprised’
When school started in September, Newport’s senior student Su confided to a teacher after ending her short relationship with her classmates that she had been physically and emotionally abused. She was not surprised when the school in the Factoria community in Bellevue did not follow her request to teach her ex-boyfriend from their shared choir class.
“The plan is that he can’t sit next to me on the seating plan,” Su said, but they are sometimes arranged together in the choir.
Then, before bringing her concerns to Instagram, she talked about her frustration with the school’s assistant principal.
After Su posted her post, she and other Newport students went on strike, asking the system to better meet the needs of students when dealing with dating violence and sexual assault cases.
She and several other students were expelled after the protests, which caused the school to close, which administrators said disrupted the education process.
“I am not surprised because something like this has happened in the past. I am disappointed because I don’t think it will happen to me,” Su told Crosscut after being fired.
She worried about how the school would respond before she made it public: “This really made me reconsider before speaking,” she said. “I did it anyway.”
Bellevue’s interim superintendent, Art Jarvis, did not mention any specific students. In a message sent to the school community, he wrote that the public’s response was “one-sided.” He said that many community members believed that “other students were guilty.”
“Sexual assault or sexual harassment is never tolerated in the policies or practices of the Bellevue school system. There is also no mentality to skip important investigations and findings or ignore the due process protection that everyone deserves,” Jarvis wrote road.
He said the school district continues to investigate these allegations, but the findings will not be made public because they involve young people.
Bellevue school district spokesperson Janine Thorn (Janine Thorn) said that the district is working with the school community, including parents, administrators, and students, to resolve issues raised by students.
“We are listening to everyone’s concerns and conducting listening sessions,” she said.
She also emphasized that the school district supports students’ right to protest peacefully and express their concerns and criticisms.
Rights and responsibilities
Patel of the National Women’s Law Center said that under the ninth federal law, schools and school districts must ensure that students continue to receive education when they feel unsafe due to sexual harassment.
“According to Article 9, they have the obligation to maintain and protect her civil rights [Su’s] Get an education. This is something that the school should take very seriously,” Patel said.
To complicate matters more, the consequences of these relationships also follow the students to school, even if the alleged abuse occurs outside the campus.
Patel said that how Su’s situation develops may adversely affect other students in similar situations. She thinks what happened to Su may have a chilling effect and prevent other students from coming forward to avoid abusers.
She added that Article 9 not only protects the right of students who report abuse, but also protects the due process rights of students facing charges, and does not bear the person’s crimes. And it requires both students to maintain a fair chance of going to school.
She said that feeling insecure at school can affect students’ ability to learn and participate in school activities, adding that the school can play a role regardless of whether the alleged abuse occurs on campus.
“They can change the course schedule to make sure the survivors feel safe,” she said. “They are the ones who can take these actions, and they must be like other civil rights laws.”
Su said in an interview that despite her personal consequences, she still chooses to speak out.
“I don’t regret the report, even if I think it has not been handled best, I am grateful at least what I said,” she said.
“I think for most people, a big problem with the way things happen is lack of empathy,” she added. “I’m talking about simple human empathy [that] I don’t think this has been proven. “
In early December, after the appeal hearing of her expulsion, Sue was allowed to return to Newport High School under certain restrictions. She said these restrictions required her to stay away from her ex-boyfriend; forbid her to participate in extracurricular activities; keep her expulsion record in her school records, if she applied to college, would see it; and asked her to give up chorus lessons.
She said the last one was at the request of her ex-boyfriend.
“He quoted-not quoted’feeling threatened’,” she said. She left the class she had liked since the fourth grade.
She noticed that, ironically, the school district approved his request to remove her from class after rejecting her request to remove him from class. She said she was very upset before, but not as sad as she found out that he got his request within a day.
Sue is currently taking classes remotely in Newport, she said, because school district restrictions make it difficult to attend classes in person, and she still feels unsafe at school.
“I don’t want a school where adults-people who should be cared for-always show that they will protect the abuser,” she said.
At the same time, she is re-appealing to delete it from her record.
Su said that although she did not return to school in person, she still plans to graduate from Newport.
“I have always liked Newport. I always thought we were really great,” she said. Although her recent experience has weakened her view of adults and managers, it has improved her view of peers and friends.
“With so many students supporting me and calling for change, it would be great to have children who support me when I graduate,” she said.
