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Thomas Chen

SPEAKERS. Kalugdan and Karmaliani instruct the students while Dean of Students, Stacy Tepp, watches on the side.

Dinosaurs and directions. That’s how Serene Kalugan and Cerena Karmaliani started an assembly on May 16, introducing the three-page draft of a new sexual assault and harassment policy that has been in development for two years.

“We’ve spent time working on the text,” Karmaliani said, “but we want your input.”

Kalugdan and Karmaliani described what students would do once they arrived at their advisory locations. The two also let students know that, while there would be no talk about sexual assault details, US Counselors Heidi Lohman and Josie Zuniga were available and in open office hours during the time.

Students were dismissed quickly to advisory groups, where they delved further into the policy language in discussion and then offered feedback through a Google Form.

“[The policy] can help allow people to recognize sexual assault and misconduct, and if they see it happen, or they experienced it, that they feel comfortable, identifying it and also reporting it,” Kalugdan said.

Once in advisory spaces, students and their faculty advisors previewed a slideshow shared by Karmaliani and Kalugdan. The slideshow put the new policy on display, which first defined sexual harassment and misconduct before going into the scope of the policy, the reporting process, the response from the administration, and disciplinary action.

Freshman Meili Windorski said, “The assembly was very short and felt a little unnecessary, and when we got to advisories, I feel like it was not the best formatted to be engaging and interactive. Everyone was kind of tired, but there were good points in the slideshow.”

The policy gave many examples of behaviors and included a reminder that any person — students, teachers, staff, and administrators— can be affected or be offenders.

Windorski added that, despite the post-lunch, late-day discussion, “It is still important to talk about this kind of stuff.”

Kalugdan and Karmaliani have been proactive advocates for this cause throughout their time in the upper school: they led an assembly during Community Day, using their knowledge gained from the regional Georgetown Sexual Assault Summit to educate students on sexual assault and consent, followed by the sexual assault walk-in, in which students held signs in support of survivors.

The two were strong contributors to creating a new policy, as were many seniors last year, with one of them even focusing their senior project on it. Administrators first began compiling the policy two years ago to replace the current, one-paragraph policy, which was deemed insufficient to address sexual assault and harassment. Later on, students were asked to help the school develop it further. “[The former policy] was a paragraph under… the very broad category of bullying. It wasn’t actually under sexual harassment or sexual misconduct,” Kalugdan said.

Dean of Students Stacy Tepp said regarding the timeline: “We’re trying to get student feedback because we’d like to put it in the handbook for next year.” The Upper School Handbook will be released sometime in August and will be accessible through Veracross.