As Archie Williams students purchase their Homecoming tickets, Peer Resource (PR) and Wellness have begun their annual presentations and awareness days to prepare students for the first school dance of the year. This follows a recurring history of students, according to Archie Williams student body, experiencing acts of sexual assault and other forms of misconduct at school-sanctioned dances.
Senior Lili Cusick has been a member of PR since her sophomore year and emphasizes the importance of peer mentoring at Archie Williams.
“My sophomore year, I peer mentored a girl that was struggling with sexual assault. She had already reported [being sexually assaulted] to the [Archie Williams] administration and was upset about the way [that the] administration had responded to her,” Lilli said.
Oftentimes, the administration can’t take action against perpetrators of sexual misconduct due to the act being committed outside of school hours or not on the school campus. In the past, according to Wellness and PR, they have strived to foster awareness of sexual misconduct and intervene when cases of it occur. In cases that the incident did occur during school hours and on campus, the incident is taken to administration and those culpable are prosecuted, while the victims receive on-site support.
“Past generations have faced sexual assault at unsafe dances, and with COVID shutting down dances it gave us an opportunity to rebrand the way we plan dances. We came up with the idea of safe leader necklaces that everyone in PR now has. It’s not to police anyone or get in the way of people having a good time, it’s honestly just to make students…feel supported and know we will help them get out of uncomfortable’ situations,” Lilli said.
Along with supervision from administrators, police officers, and staff chaperones, PR students trained as Safe Leaders attend this year’s Homecoming, tasked with responding to any student in distress. The Safe Leaders will be wearing glowing hearts around their necks, allowing anyone in an uncomfortable situation, such as sexual misconduct, to spot them easily.
Sexual assault is all too common of an experience for U.S. high schoolers. According to the American Association of University Women, “In the 2017-18 school year alone, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported over 1,000 cases of rape and 7,000 cases of sexual assault other than rape in K-12 public schools—though these incidents remain generally underreported.”
At school dances, many students can feel uncomfortable with the situations they end up in due to the number of their peers around and the lack of personal space.
“I think everyone got way too close to each other. It made me very uncomfortable because I didn’t have any personal space. There was way more contact than I would have liked, people were jumping against each other, and there wasn’t any space to breathe,” said an anonymous Archie Williams sophomore who attended Homecoming last year.
In an effort to make students feel more comfortable and safe at school events throughout this school year, PR and Wellness have continued to work to create a more positive environment at school. Senior and third-year PR member Lydia Rivera explained that students have access to many different resources and forms of support and broke down rules surrounding confidentiality.
“The main resource [here at school] is the Wellness Center, but we also have a lot of on-site therapists, but when it comes to sexual assault it can be tricky. Sexual assault would technically fall under one of the breaches of confidentiality under non-consensual activity or someone assaulting or harming you,” Lydia said.
The Wellness Center displays the rules of confidentiality, which include sexual assault and discusses them with students during presentations. Beatrix Berry, the Outreach Specialist in the Wellness Center, works to support students and refer them to other resources. She is available in the Wellness Center every day during the school week, except Wednesdays.
“We want to make sure we’re being transparent about [the rules of confidentiality,] because we don’t want it to feel like we’re tricking you into saying something we need to then report in order to get you more support,” Berry said.
PR and Wellness’ goal this year is to help rebrand the way that the school community discusses sexual assault and support students in any way they can. As the Archie Williams community anticipates future school events, PR and Wellness encourage students to be conscious of others and stay aware.
National Sexual Assault Hotline
1-800-656-4673
Marin 24-Hour Hotline
(415) 499-7153
