FHS student organizes forum to discuss rape culture, attitude changes for schools

FREDERICTON – One year after dozens of students walked out of class at Fredericton High School protesting their dress code, student-led forum concentrated on how to improve their own schools will be held Thursday.

Students at Fredericton High voiced their concern over the school’s dress code policy by walking out of school in protest last fall.

READ MORE: Fredericton High students protest school’s dress code

Some students felt it singled out female students and encouraged the idea that sexual assault can be blamed on women.

“We do have 12 teachers trained as a sexual assault response team, and we have a White Ribbon chapter in our school, we have this forum that’s happening with all the school groups, we have a dress code committee and we have a sexual assault policy that’s being written,” said Megan Hill, a grade 12 student at FHS.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We do have 12 teachers trained as a sexual assault response team, and we have a White Ribbon chapter in our school, we have this forum that's happening with all the school groups, we have a dress code committee and we have a sexual assault policy that's being written," said Megan Hill, a grade 12 student at FHS.

Hill says a lot has changed since the protest last fall. But lots of other schools haven’t experienced the same changes that FHS has, which is why Hill organized a forum to talk about the issues she believes remain.

WATCH BELOW: Students challenge dress code at Fredericton High School

“The goal of the day is to give the high school feminist groups in the city a space to collaborate and connect, to critically analyse our institutions, particularly the school system, and the get education in an alternative setting,” she said.

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Hill has arranged for 50 teens from four Fredericton-area high schools to meet for the day-long forum.

READ MORE: Fredericton High students challenging school’s dress code

Various community organizations will also attend, including AIDS NB, the Fredericton Sexual Assault Centre, the Fredericton Gender Minorities Group and the Voices for Women Forum.

“Hopefully, what will come of that is we’ll have documents that we can present to our schools and be like, ‘this is what you need to do in order to keep us happy.'”

Developments within the year

Shane Thomas, principal of FHS, said he’s been very pleased at the improvements in dialogue since the events of last fall.

He said he’s done, or is working on, everything he said he’d do after what happened last year.

“We’ve moved forward as a school. I’m really happy with where we are, it’s been a very open dialogue,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We've moved forward as a school. I'm really happy with where we are, it's been a very open dialogue," he said.

One of the actions Thomas has taken on was starting a dress code committee that includes parents, students and teachers.

That committee is working on where the school’s dress code could improve. The committee met just this week.

READ MORE: School dress codes: Discriminatory or necessary?

The Anglophone West School District is also working on a comprehensive sexual assault policy.

Hill said she hoped the policy would have been completed by now, but would like to see it completed before she graduates in the spring.

Hannah Gray will be at Hill’s forum, representing Reproductive Justice. She applauds FHS for furthering the discussion and says it needs to continue.

“I think that we need opportunities like the one that Megan’s created, to address the things that created that, and the thing that made the students upset in the first place,” she said.