Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) School Board members and BHS staff and administrators are updating and instituting various policies and procedures to aid in the prevention of and appropriate response to sexual harm.
A survey taken by over 2500 BHS students last school year revealed that 69 percent of respondents believed that a way for students to report problems anonymously would reduce sexual harassment at BHS. BHS principal Erin Schweng stated, “We’re looking to see what other districts are doing in terms of anonymous reporting [so] we can make it clear and make it a system that will actually work for students.” Currently, BHS does not have a formal method of reporting incidents anonymously. However, last school year, the Sexual Harassment Advisory Committee (SHAC) delivered rights and reporting informational cards to students, and Schweng expressed her intent to continue using the card system while a more formal procedure of reporting is being developed. In an email to BHS students, Schweng warned that all district employees are mandated reporters of child abuse and criminal acts, alluding to the inability of certain reports received by BHS staff and administrators to remain anonymous despite students’ wishes. She suggested speaking with Health Center counselors, all of whom are not employees of BUSD and therefore have no legal obligation to report incidents.
In regards to sexual harm prevention, both Schweng and Ty Alper, President of the BUSD school board, stated that BHS will continue to implement Green Dot, a reportedly successful research based sexual harassment and bullying prevention program recommended to the district by SHAC. During the 2016-2017 school year, 32 students participated in a single session of the “upstander training” program. Schweng stated that the school hopes to hold four additional trainings over the course of this school year.
For the past two years, the entirety of the freshman class has attended the annual Student Power Actualized through Respect and Kinship (SPARK) assembly. The assembly covers topics of homophobia, transphobia, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual battery, and includes student and teacher guest speakers.
“[SPARK] is the cornerstone of the attempt to shift the culture at BHS, and hopefully beyond. The concepts raised in SPARK are discussed in much more detail in Social Living classes in the Spring, and ideally by teachers in other classes as well,” said Ms. Moran, a BHS teacher and an organizer of the assembly this school year. Schweng, in her email to BHS students, stated that ninth graders will attend the assembly again this year.
Schweng said plans are in the works regarding a comprehensive full school sexual harassment and bullying education program. “I believe that as students go through the grades, the type of education and information they need changes, so we will bring educators to campus that can provide the kind of information and in-class discussion that is appropriate for older students as well,” she stated in her email. Schweng said that the administration received positive feedback regarding a sexual harassment educator who visited the classrooms of older students last school year, and that the educator is likely to work with students again this school year. Schweng stated that the district will continue to offer peer-health educator workshops in classes provided by the BHS Health Center.
A statement which prefaces the district’s “Action Steps to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Harassment” says, “The district recognizes the need to ensure that all schools are safe, welcoming, and free from all forms of bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.”