Northampton superintendent presents plan to deal with sexual harassment concerns

By Nyssa Kruse

@NyssaKruse

Published: 07-14-2017 9:32 PM

NORTHAMPTON — The school district is moving ahead with new training, reporting and curriculum strategies to address concerns about sexual harassment in JFK Middle School following three recent student-led demonstrations on the issue.

Superintendent John Provost’s three-point plan, presented to the School Committee Thursday, includes: reviewing and adding to curriculum on the topic, improving the sexual harassment reporting procedure and the introduction of a training for students on “resisting and confronting harassing peer behavior.”

“As the students themselves have said, this issue is much larger than JFK Middle School,” Provost said in a statement to the committee. “It is a national and even global problem, so I have to be realistic about the limitations of my three-point plan. We need to focus on healing the little part of the world where we can realistically hope to make a difference.”

Students have said they feel sexual harassment isn’t sufficiently addressed in health class or taken seriously enough by staff at JFK. Provost said he has met with a student demonstrator, the School Committee and JFK staff to discuss how to move forward.

Karen Jarvis-Vance, director of health, safety and equity programs for the district, said health classes in the middle school use a program — All Stars Prevention — approved by the attorney general to prevent violence, including bullying and harassment, among other harmful behaviors.

Provost said in the statement that the district is taking a look at the effectiveness of the health curriculum for seventh- and eighth-graders.

He added that the district is also interested in creating some curriculum about sexual harassment for sixth-grade students, who currently do not take health or have any other curriculum on the issue.

Jarvis-Vance said the sixth grade curriculum might happen during physical education classes or another avenue.

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“We’re not sure what it will look like, but it’s definitely a hole we’ve identified,” Jarvis-Vance said.

Provost’s statement said that a 2015 survey found 89 percent of students at JFK said they feel safe in school, while 11 percent do not. About 89 percent also said they have not referred to girls with insulting names, while 11 percent said they had.

“I think right now there’s a skewed view that’s being portrayed that a majority of students are perpetrating acts of sexual harassment,” Provost said.

Provost said it’s still important to acknowledge students in both categories — those who have admitted to harassing peers and those who feel unsafe — as the district moves forward.

“They are all middle school students,” Provost said in the statement. “They all grow up in an environment replete with confusing and sometimes hurtful messages about how they should relate to each other.”

For the 2016-17 school year, Provost said JFK has recorded of only one reported incident of sexual harassment, even though 11 percent of students say they’ve called a female peer an insulting name.

“It seems that a lot of this behavior is going unreported which limits our ability to intervene and educate the ones who are making these comments,” Provost said in the statement.

Teacher training

Student demonstrators said they want teachers to be trained on how to handle sexual harassment, and Jarvis-Vance said district teachers already receive training on civil rights issues, including sexual harassment, and bullying, which also includes sexual harassment.

However, she said trainings have been too brief, and the district is moving to a new, more in-depth online training platform, a change already in the works before the demonstrations.

She said she thinks the new trainings will be better, especially because they were developed by the district, making them specific to local needs.

Provost said high school administrators have asked to be a part of the conversation when it comes to addressing sexual harassment, especially since many of the student demonstrators will be in ninth grade next year.

He said he also has an open door policy for any student who would like to further discuss the issue.

“I’m very interested in hearing their perspective,” Provost said. “I’m just waiting for students interested in continuing the conversation to get in touch with me.”

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