We began the week by talking about each of the victims who lost their lives in the Parkland shooting. I displayed each of their photos on the screen and had the students take turns reading aloud who they were, what they loved, the family they left behind, and the futures that they had in store. This made so many topics important in the YESS teachings a reality- we acknowledged the need for loving one another and lending kindness because you never know the battles that someone else might be facing. We discussed the gun violence epidemic and there were respectful debates about gun control and the work that needs to be done in this country regarding mental health and toxic masculinity. We also discussed how this event is different than a lot of other tragedies in the way that there are students, the young people who are the survivors of Parkland, who are courageously using their platform to stand up for what the believe in. These young people from Florida are trying to make a change to create a safer and more moral world. I feel that in a class titled Youth Empowerment that these events happening currently are the most exquisite representation of youth empowering other youth. After watching their speeches and discussions with government officials, the kids were inspired by the bravery and maturity of these students using their voices for change... after all, it was only a few weeks ago that these students were in the same position as my ACHS students; sitting in desks worrying about upcoming tests living the normal life of a teen. And now, they are worrying about writing speeches to recite them in front of the world, forcing themselves to do the work that hired officials are not doing themselves. They strive to be the last school shooting and they are determined to be written into history books as the young people who did something about their future and the future of other student's lives to come in the education system and beyond.
In the second half of the week we discussed dating abuse. This was an interesting segue from the last lesson as a point was brought up about how all the people who have committed these mass murder crimes in the US have been statistically male. There is an epidemic concerning male mental health in this country and this lead our discussion about what we can do to change this and how violence can appear on the small scale in domestic partnerships. It was also important to point out that women can be in the role of the abuser as well. A huge part of this discussion surrounded defining what the word "consent" means to each person and how it should equate with a mandatory level of respect when people are wanting to take their relationships to the next level. We learned about shocking statistics that directed our open discussion where people who felt comfortable shared experiences belonging to their personal lives. The last activity of the week was the highlight: acting out scenarios of the 6 main dating abuse topics (physical, emotional, verbal, digital, financial, and sexual) However, I left the sexual topic out of the acting exercise as I did not feel it was appropriate for them. They used their best judgement and got my approval before acting out their scenes in front of the class to compete for some homemade Mexican wedding cookies (:-)!), and because it was such a heavy past few weeks, a lot of their skits were extremely humorous while appropriately getting their points across about the dangers of an unhealthy relationship. See a clip from a skit below!
Until next week,
Ms. Castro
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