During an October Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) meeting, Club Advisor Kimberley Gilles highlighted the existence of a school policy that can help victims of harassment.

    The steps of the policy entail that if a student is in a classroom and something is being communicated to them that is inappropriately sexual in content and/or harassing, the student has the right notify his or her teacher that he or she is going to the office, and then leave to seek support from a counselor or administrator.

    “You can just explain to the teacher that you need to leave, and [that] you are going to the office, and you [go] there,” Gilles said. “You don’t stop at the bathroom; you don’t stop to text 92 people; you go to the office and explain you have a problem. And they will respond.”

    This policy serves as a guideline to students who are being targeted in class or feel overwhelmed by personal issues and need to go to the office. Here they can feel safe or express their concerns and emotions. But students who abuse this policy in order to cut class or commit some type of shanigan may run the risk of eliminating this policy for the entire student body.

    “Administrators and teachers are going to be concerned if students abuse it,” Gilles said. “If students want to see their freedom to get help shut down, all they have to do is abuse it [or] trivialize it. And then the trust in students’ good sense gets completely undermined.”

    The consequences of harassment can severely affect a student’s ability to receive a productive educational experience.

    “If you walk onto this campus and it’s a hostile place, you can’t learn,” Gilles said. “And we can’t fulfill our mission.”

    Possessing knowledge of these steps is valuable to students who face trouble and are unaware of their ability to act against it.

    “If you’re being harassed and harangued, [there’s] no reason you have to sit there and endure it,” GSA President senior Matt Herb said. “If someone is truly harassing you, then you have every right to say ‘I don’t need to be in this class; I’m going to go tell an administrator. I don’t need to feel like this.’ Nobody should ever have to feel like they’re in a position where they can’t help themselves.”