A small group of Belmont Secondary students walked from their school to the Sooke School District office Friday to protest what they believe is a lack of action on sexual assaults on school grounds.
The students carried signs with messages such as “sexual assault should not be part of the high school experience” and “no means no.”
The students were motivated by a story in the Times Colonist in December in which a student recounted her sexual assault on the grounds of a West Shore middle school and the mistakes made in the school’s response.
Bee Craig, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Belmont, said the students want to help ensure “that what’s happened to some of us doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
“We need the school board, we need the principals, we need the teachers, we need the schools to listen to us,” said Craig. “We need change. We need to feel safe at school.”
The students said that when a female student brings a complaint of sexual assault, it’s the victim that has to change classrooms or schools if they feel threatened, not the accused. “[The victims] are told to avoid them,” said Craig.
She said many young women don’t report sexual assaults because they have no faith in the system.
“There’s so many people who have been sexually assaulted at school or on school grounds property,” said Craig. “And people don’t say anything because they know — they have seen from the past they’ve seen from history — there’s no justice for that. No one does anything.”
A district-wide protest at schools was planned Friday but organizers postponed it until Jan. 17 due to the extreme cold winter, although the Belmont students opted to go ahead anyway.
Joshua Frenette, another 15-year-old Grade 10 Belmont student who made the 20-minute walk in -7 weather to the school district office, said it’s one thing to teach students about consent, but without repercussions for sexual assaults, it’s just words.
Sooke School District superintendent Paul Block sent out a letter Thursday evening to school families, saying he was aware of plans circulating on social media for a walkout at middle and secondary schools, and explaining the school’s conduct rules, which include students being required to sign out and in if leaving the campus.
He also warned that “disorderly conduct that disrupts school operations is not acceptable and will be addressed compassionately but firmly, in accordance with our middle school code of conduct and secondary code of conduct respectively.”
In the letter, Block said the district had received questions from families “who have safety concerns with regards to protests on or near school grounds.”
He said the district respects the right of students to advocate for causes that are important to them and that he welcomed any student or student group to discuss “appropriate and creative ways to do so while at school.”
“As educators, we recognize that student activism can be an important part of the learning process,” he wrote.
Block said West Shore and Sooke RCMP were aware of the planned protest “and there may be an increased presence of law enforcement around our schools to assist with community safety.”
On Friday, the father of one of the girls in the walkout wrote to the school district, the province and local MLAs to object to the school district’s letter.
He noted that one of the young women involved in the walkout reported an assault to the school on multiple occasions and “nothing was done.”
The father argued the right to protest is basic to democracy, saying he sees the district-wide email as “discipline towards those individuals who wish to protest.”
Block’s letter noted that parents and guardians on school property must also sign in and out at the school office, and are not permitted to protest on school grounds.
Next week’s protest is expected to include parents and community members.
Block invited the protest group’s spokespeople into what turned into an almost hour-long meeting with himself and Vanessa White, district principal for Safe & Healthy Schools.
