Dr. Kevin Ahern has arranged a monthly student union meeting, in which he has handpicked different groups and organizations for involvement. Students will meet once a month to discuss ways to positively build our school climate.

“Essentially what I’m trying to do is build a panel of students who can give us a better reading on school climate,” Ahern said. “This way we can build our school culture in a more positive way and include all representative groups.”

These monthly meetings began on December 8, and will be held once a month during Tuesday in advisory (access period). Ahern’s intent with these meetings is to “have the student voice build into the development of a positive school culture and climate.”

These meetings were prompted by an incident that occurred during our homecoming rally when few people took offense at gestures made in the class lip sync battle.

“The issue first occurred when there was some offence taken at our homecoming rally regards to a specific act that occurred during the rally,” Ahern said. “I think it’s important to talk about these issues up front and discuss our values and what we represent as a school because we have a very diverse student body.”

    Madison Miszewski, president of the Gay Straight Alliance, felt strongly about both incident that occurred during the homecoming rally.

    “Two of the lipsyncs featured male students dressed as females, and this is a harmful image to portray in reference to the transgender community – it is essentially ‘wearing transgender as a costume,’” she said. “It can induce a fear in young trans students who are likely afraid to explore their gender identity, and when students see this being laughed it, it can crumble their self-esteem in the time it takes someone to laugh.”

    The second incident that occurred involved two boys (one dressed as a girl) kissing each other.

    “This is particularly hurtful to students who don’t identify as straight, and there are a lot of us at this school,” Miszewski said.

    Ahern believes MV will take a great step in the right direction through these meetings, and hopefully be able to fully integrate our diverse student body.

    “Ultimately the goal is to avoid situations like the previous homecoming rally,” Ahern said. “It’s not a sensitivity issue, but a way to make sure everyone in our student body is equally represented amongst each other.”

    The goal of these meetings is to be able to come together as a student body and ensure a safe and positive environment.

    “The reason events like the ones at the rally transpire are out of a lack of understanding and something that should come out of these meetings is education on all parts,” junior Miszewski said. “That said, I don’t think these meetings will eliminate the problem, but they will of course make a huge impact on the frequency that these problems occur and the intent behind them.”

    Miszewski hopes that these meetings open up the minds of our students so we can all show our mutual respect to one another.

    “It’s a big world that students will have to transition into after high school and we have an opportunity to start that process of going into that world right here at MV,” Ahern said.