Student Power!
Hello, and 740 reasons to smile this morning! Thank you and welcome to those of you who have recently stepped into solidarity with survivors, alumni and people concerned with systemic sexual abuse in our schools! Together, we will end this in KHS!
Aside from survivors, students are the most directly impacted by the sustain of any part of a culture of sexual abuse. Student activism, as we all are aware, was central to bringing the Vietnam War to a close, has been central in many human and civil rights movements, the Civil Rights movement, the Feminist Movement, LGGBTQi rights movements, BLM, and gun control movements to mention a few. Taking care not to possibly be criticized as pushing an agenda on students, of propagandizing or indoctrinating them, I have done what I did as a professor, put some relevant information before various student groups and asked that they consider this and make their own decisions how to respond. Critical thinking in schools is imperative!
I believe students have a right to know that many adults, parents, alumni and persons who care about children, ARE taking action to pressure the school to do much more than it has with regard to the revelations of 30 named faculty or staff perpetrators of sexual abuse against children. Toward the end I have send a few student groups the following message I copy in full here. I do not see this as spamming. I see this as critical as is setting off a fire alarm if I see smoke at the school. Students can decide for themselves how to respond.
"Hi students, I am an alumnus, Class of 72 from KHS. I want you to know, if you do not, that many adults are making a concerted effort to stop the systemic sexual abuse that has thrived there for 50 years involving at least 30 faculty or staff abusing literally thousands of students. This last number is difficult to believe but one perpetrator was a girls gym coach there and in Nipher for fifteen or more years combined and daily put girls through a humiliating nude inspection during which she examined them to see if they had taken proper showers and often criticized their bodies. As she did this each gym class for three years with each girl...god knows..perhaps tens of thousands of instances of this abuse occurred. This was known about and tolerated by several administrations back to the 60s. She is dead now and can't sue anyone for breaking the silence on this ugly truth. Of course there were many perps and constant coverups. Please consider: https://www.change.org/KHSstoptheabuse2021
Brian Carlson