“We’re Seeing Fewer Reports of Sexual Assault and Harassment”
Maine School Lowers Incidents of Sexual Misconduct School-Wide After Bringing in Be Strong, Be Wise
Two years ago, Camden Hills Regional High School, like many schools across the country, struggled with an overwhelming number of sexual assault and harassment reports among students.
“It was a pervasive and consistent issue,” said Jeremy Marks, Head of Counseling at Camden Hills. “It was getting in the way of students’ education, so much so that the students staged a school-wide walkout in protest. Many of them reported they did not feel safe at school. We knew we had to act.”
And act they did.
Earlier this year, I featured Camden Hills on the Be Strong, Be Wise blog as a school willing to go the distance for its students. Not long after we introduced the pilot program at the school, Vice Principal Jen Curtis sat down with students to discuss the challenges they face at school and the ways they feel unsafe. What she heard was heartbreaking.
“I just couldn’t hear any more of these hard stories,” said Curtis. “Teens need opportunities to talk about mutual respect in a relationship, consent, and personal safety in a supportive and comfortable environment.”
Health teacher Patrick Kelly proctored the Youth course. “In my opinion, this course is a must experience for all health students,” he said. “The dynamic presentation of the Be Strong, Be Wise materials is absolutely outstanding. Kids are attentive, engaged and exposed to critical information that they need to make wise choices.”
The students’ reports were equally positive, and included such statements as: “I haven’t ever felt this comfortable in a class before. The Be Strong, Be Wise course encouraged us to go deeper than just what is the definition of sexual assault or harassment.”
With a strong YES from students and faculty, the school then decided to implement the BSBW Train-the-Trainer course. Due to teachers’ busy schedules, the TTT was delivered during a two-day intensive with school admin, health teachers and counseling staff. During the training, we explored the forces that inform consent for teens, such as gender roles, peer pressure, substance use, cancel culture, pornography and social media.
As with most of the schools we’ve worked with, implementing the train-the-trainer course was the most impactful step for Camden Hills. Teachers and counseling staff were given the opportunity to explore the experiential education components that make Be Strong, Be Wise so effective.
“Anything worth its salt has to be delivered over time,” said Marks. “The BSBW programming, from the Youth course to the Train-the-Trainer, allowed us to take the time to get it right. Be Strong, Be Wise has a genuineness to it and a real-world quality that isn’t just based in theory. It’s an accessible curriculum I haven’t seen anywhere else. I strongly recommend it; it’s interactive and meets the students where they’re at.”
Future teachers of the course were able to learn how to conduct role plays with students, where boundaries are explored and communicated. With the equally important component of reflective writing and discussion, students are given a chance to not only discover what “unwanted sexual touch” means to them, but the particular style that works for them in communicating those boundaries to others.
“Teenagers have an online identity and a physical identity and rarely are they the same. One is curated and is not necessarily true to who they are at the core. I’ve seen students who have agreed to something electronically but then aren’t sure how to translate that to a real-time experience. Be Strong, Be Wise helps teens listen to their inner voice. It helps them identify that voice, nurture it and most of all, trust it. I see this as such a key piece to the whole course,” lead social worker at Camden Hills, Allison Pringle-Bennett, said of her students.
Since teens most commonly navigate unwanted sexual stalking and harassment via screens, a critical component of the BSBW course for educators involves learning ways to equip young people with an awareness of how to listen to, inquire about and respect the boundaries of others.
“Every parent lets their kid bring their phone into their bedroom. We don’t think twice about it. In actuality, they are engaging in sexual activity in their bedroom since the phone is where most of these encounters start. Whether sharing nude pics, or acts of self-pleasure, cyber space is the number one arena where students are exploring the sex experience,” said Curtis. “I liked how Be Strong, Be Wise taught students how to take care of each other, how to listen to each other and help each other make good choices with their online presence.”
During Spring semester, just before the prom, BSBW conducted a school-wide Assembly at Camden Hills where the key components of the course were explored. All 700 students talked with each other about what they would say if someone tried to cross a boundary, and what they would do or say if they witnessed a boundary set by someone else.
Afterward, feedback from students included such statements as: “This is a topic that is not talked about enough;” and, “You treated us with respect, instead of assuming that we’re dumb.”
These comments reflect the core values of our mission, which are to respect the integrity and dignity of every student we teach. What we’re learning from students, is that instilling these values in the course, increases the likelihood that students will practice them with each other.
“We are observing that students are coming in to the counseling department with much less issues around consent, assault and harassment,” said Marks. “We are not dealing with these at all in the same way we were.”
For busy school staff who are burdened with teacher burn-out and the mental health needs of students, it’s easier to provide comprehensive, evidence-based programming when someone else has done the heavy lifting for you. If you’d like information on how to increase the safety of the teens in your life, reach out for your free consultation.
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