A group of Terry Fox students wants to change attitudes towards sexual assault and promote a culture of consent to prevent sexual violence in relationships among young people, particularly LGTBQ youth who are most at risk.
They’re holding a silent protest, pasting school walls with posters and posting a video they made on YouTube to raise awareness about sexual assault and the importance of mutual consent.
At a time when the #MeToo movement is challenging accepted norms, the Terry Fox awareness campaign offers the youth point of view on a controversial topic.
And so far the students don’t seem to be shying away from the spotlight.
“I wanted to let other kids know you don’t need to be scared to help out and learn about #MeToo and consent culture,” explained Michael Evans, a defensive lineman on the highly-ranked AAA Ravens football team, who got team members to participate in a video on consent culture that has been posted to Youtube.
The goal is to get as many people as possible to see the video that talks about the prevalence of sexual assault and ways to combat it through consent culture promoting respect and positive sexuality.
Carolina Dervalli, who co-wrote and directed the video with Evans, said she wanted students to understand that it’s not OK to idolize violent relationships based on power and entitlement or blame the victim.
“I thought we could put it (the video) together to let people know it’s not normal and you have to talk about it,” Dervalli said.
Another group of students held a silent protest on Tuesday, raising awareness about the #MeToo movement and calling for more resources to support victims.
The students put tape on their mouths so they couldn’t speak for the entire school day and held up signs explaining their protest.
Sarah Cronkhite, and Kayla Tso, both in Grade 12, said for the most part students were curious about the protest and wanted to know more. “We heard from a lot of people and it got a conversation started,” said Tso.
Dealing with such topical issues is common for students in Ryan Cho’s Social Justice 12 class, but it’s unusual for students to challenge their peers in such forceful and engaging way.
Dervalli said she wanted to do a video because she thought it would be a powerful tool to challenge attitudes. In Brazil, where she is from, sexual assault is common and in Canada, it affects one in four women and one in six men, but by changing attitudes, she hopes sexual violence will be reduced.
Evans, meanwhile, said athletes can sometimes act badly but his fellow Fox members are respectful, even if they joked a bit before tackling the serious topic of sexual assault on the video.
“I wanted to show that because you play sports doesn’t mean you can’t care about others.”
Cho said he was impressed by the video, which features members of the Ravens football team talking about rape culture and would like to see a professional sports organization, such as the BC Lions to take it on and promote it.
So far that hasn’t happened, but the students and Cho say they believe it’s time the younger generation started making a difference to end sexual violence.
“If you’re a Fox student you now know that you can be more than a top academic or an elite athlete, you can be a role model,” Cho said.
