The March 21st walkout in protest of school and district handling of a former McClatchy student’s rape stirred the McClatchy community to action. Since the walk-out, student organizers have met with various staff, administration, and community leaders to enact the change that the walk-out prompted.
The week of the walk-out, students had a preliminary meeting with McClatchy’s administration, and district officials; Jay Hansen, the President of the School Board Jessie Ryan, and the District’s Superintendent Jorge Aguilar were all in attendance. The meeting laid out what students would like to see done to ensure the protection and well-being of students.
Since, students have met with Geral Lowe, the new Student Support Center Coordinator to discuss improving the Student Support Center, with talks of starting up a Community Mentor Program, as well as a peer mentor program.
“[a community mentor program] would allow community members to access guidance counselors, while the peer mentor program would train upperclassmen to handle low level underclassmen problems,” says Maya Steinhart (‘19), a student organizer.
The McClatchy administration has met with the student organizers and encouraged the group to edit next year’s student handbook, to make it “more accessible to students, and make it actually make sense,” says Steinhart.
The group is also working with the city and the Sacramento Police Department, discussing School Resource Officers (SROs) on campus, “We have had a meeting with [city council member] Jay Schenirer to discuss the district’s role in influencing the SROs, next week we will be having a meeting with Captain Kathy Lester to discuss SRO training and policy.”
The group would like to see even more meetings in the future, “We would like to have a meeting with district officials to ensure that district policy is improved and that the school will be held accountable to get the things they have said they will do, done,” commented Steinhart.
“So far, it really seems like they’ve been cooperative, but it’ll be whether or not they actually follow through on the things that they have said, that will be the true test,” she added.
Students walkout Students walkout in protest of administration handling of sexual harassment and assault on March 21st