Senior students in Centre Wellington District High School’s (CWDHS) social justice class brought home a relevant message to their peers on Nov. 25, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
“It’s a deeply-rooted problem,” said Caleb Innes, one of three students involved in the class project, along with Julia Trottier and Justine Rajtek.
“It’s a heavy issue but we want to make people aware,” said Trottier.
Innes added. “Because it is more of a hidden issue, the abuse of women isn’t seen as an issue. Even locally, it’s not seen as an issue.”
Innes’ research on the United Nations statistics and efforts to communicate the non-violence message explained the importance of educating future generations.
“The United Nations was very clear. The only way for violence against women to end is to educate young people now that it’s not okay. You have to target youth,” Innes said, noting it was important to have male students understand the message.
The group also created a series of public-service type messages that were broadcast to students during class announcements.
“We’re doing announcements to try and raise awareness in the school,” said Trottier.
She noted the goal was to stick to statistical information, including the fact that half of the Canadian female population has suffered some form of abuse, be it physical or sexual abuse, in their lifetime.
“One of the difficulties of doing this at the school is to have it come across in a way that doesn’t offend anyone,” said Innes. “With our announcements we stayed away from expressing opinions and stuck to statistics.”
The students will also be showing two United Nations videos on the issue to their social justice class.
The social justice class is guided by teachers Jim Mason and Diane Ballantyne, who created the project to encourage student activism and education on global, national and local issues.
“The biggest part of the process is them understanding the issues … and getting them to communicate that with their peers,” said Ballantyne.
To encourage students to pay attention to the issue, Innes, Trottier and Rajtek created a large banner with the message “I respect women.”
Students were encouraged to sign the banner during the lunch hour in the CWDHS cafeteria, where the banner hung for the remainder of the week.
