JFK Middle School students march against sexual harassment

By NYSSA KRUSE

@NyssaKruse

Published: 07-09-2017 11:48 PM

NORTHAMPTON — A familiar Northampton scene played out Saturday afternoon on Main Street: About 100 people marched through downtown, holding signs and chanting. However, one notable difference stood out: The leaders and most participants were just 13 or 14 years old.

The marchers, including students of all ages, their parents and Northampton residents, protested sexual harassment in local schools — especially JFK Middle School, where students led a sit-in and a separate smaller march a few weeks ago to raise awareness of the issue.

Students demanded sexual harassment and consent be addressed in Northampton schools, and, according to student organizers, their demands are already being met. Rising ninth-grader Maya Mintz Coccoluto said Superintendent John Provost has agreed to work sexual harassment into health class curriculum and create a training for students and staff about the issue.

But Mintz Coccoluto said their efforts won’t end there, and the work of Students Against Sexual Harassment, the group running the march, is just beginning.

“I feel really empowered,” Mintz Coccoluto said after the demonstration finished. “I want to keep fighting, and I want to go bigger.”

Those gathered walked from Bridge Street School to Pulaski Park, where a handful of students made brief speeches. Alexa Colly, another rising ninth-grader and organizer, said her first experience with sexual harassment came at 9 years old when she was catcalled, and she has experienced other harassment since.

She said students at her school have been told by staff that boys grabbing them or making lewd comments about their body is normal for kids their age, and that they’ll grow out of it.

Principal Lesley Wilson has previously denied this “boys will be boys” attitude is a part of the staff ideology at her school, but students insisted Saturday this was the response they got repeatedly from administration, leading them to feel they had no choice but to demonstrate.

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Alani Garcia, a rising eighth-grader, said students in her classes have been dealing with sexual harassment and cyberbullying since sixth grade.

She said a male student she knows was suspended for several days after harassing peers, but his actions continued. He has asked girls for nude pictures among other things, she said, and she wants the issue brought to law enforcement.

“Students don’t feel safe,” Garcia said. “I’m going to keep standing up.”

She said it also makes her angry the situation had to escalate to the point of students demonstrating before administrators took their complaints seriously enough to train staff and educate students on the issue.

“We should be worrying about our education,” Garcia said. “They’re adults, and we’re kids.”

Christa Colly, Alexa Colly’s mother, said she supports the students in their actions, and she also took issue with how the problem escalated to a demonstration before administrators took serious action.

“I know John Provost now wants to work with them, and that’s good,” she said. “It would’ve been nice if that would have happened before they took social action.”

Other students also expressed frustration over what they see as weak punishments for harassers in their school, who face a one-day suspension for the first offense of either verbal or physical sexual harassment, according to the JFK handbook.

However, students said this punishment is not given every time, with multiple students referencing an incident where they say a harasser was punished with just a call home.

“I got a call home for a sit-in,” said rising ninth-grader Simone Cielos. “In what world is that equal?”

Wilson has previously said she cannot comment on specific cases but said administrators use discretion and the handbook when it comes to punishing students.

Organizers from the middle school, all women, as well as some high school students spoke at the park, including two boys, both from Northampton High School.

While organizers emphasized that people of all genders can be victims of sexual harassment, the boys said they understand a majority of harassment and assault is perpetrated by males.

Rising senior Galen Winsor called on men to take responsibility for harassment.

“In the end, it is up to men to end harassment,” Winsor said. “If men themselves don’t change, sexual harassment will not end.”

Hayden Feldscher, a rising junior at NHS, focused on so-called “locker-room talk” in his speech, saying he has witnessed boys making objectifying and degrading comments about females both in the locker room and just about everywhere else.

He said he used to stand by when this occurred, and even laugh when peers made degrading jokes about women, unaware it was wrong. Now, after speaking to female friends, he believes “locker-room talk” normalizes harassment, and he called on men and women to stand up when they hear it.

“Not actively participating in locker-room talk but still going along with it is part of the problem,” Feldscher said. “Even if you are not saying the words yourself, you are consenting to the situation and giving the OK for it to keep happening.”

Even though speeches by students took a serious tone, before the march, participants buzzed around, taking photographs with their signs and playing a soundtrack including songs such as Beyonce’s “Run the World” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger.”

They cheered as they set off from Bridge Street School, and as the group walked, about a dozen passing cars honked in acknowledgment.

Some passers-by took videos of the group and pumped their fists at the marchers, and a man shouted to them just before they reached the park.

“It’s great to see a bunch of young people expressing themselves,” he said.

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