Middle schoolers tend to joke around a lot, and to teachers, there might seem to be a blurred line between joking and relentless teasing. But there is sometimes severe and intentional hurt behind people’s actions, and we need to separate the two to find the root of harassment in the Middle School.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the definition of harassment is “unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex”.

I took a poll of my class, and 70% of the responses said that they had witnessed someone being harassed at Westminster, and 40% of them said that they had personally been harassed at Westminster. In a nutshell, almost half of our grade has been mistreated at one time or another, and it’s a bigger issue than some of us might think.

But I’ve considered something: the school has assemblies for serious issues (like the hate speech assembly), and the administration is clearly not afraid of directly addressing students directly about their misguidedness. So how do these things continue to happen in a school that confronts issues that come to the administration’s attention? There’s one major reason: silence. 76% of my class said they just ignored the abuse and said nothing. This hasn’t been addressed because it hasn’t come to the administration’s attention.

In conclusion, this is an outreach to every student in the Middle School. If you see something, say something. If you feel uncomfortable, you have the right to act on it. “Boys will be boys” or “It was just a joke” are not adequate excuses for anyone’s actions.

To the teachers, I ask, how can we create safer and more trustworthy relationships with each other and become more aware of these issues so that the number of incidents decreases? I think we can achieve this goal together, but it’ll take everyone’s courage to stand up for each other and actively work towards a safer community.