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One year after its debut, the revamped sexual misconduct policy remains a work in progress. The policy, which Students Against Sexual Harassment unveiled during Community Day last February, marked a significant step forward in defining sexual misconduct, outlining reporting processes and centering student voices. However, students and administrators acknowledge there is still work to be done.
Sophomore Anessa Herzi appreciates that the policy broadens the scope of sexual misconduct but believes precedence can be challenging to establish.
“With a new policy, there comes the issue of well, ‘What’s the norm? How do we treat all these cases equally, if they’re similar?’” she said. “I do believe that a lot of the time there needs to be more work done on how to actually implement policies.”

The revised policy includes sections on definitions, instances of sexual harassment, interim and long-term disciplinary actions and protocols for reporting and administrative response. The policy does not aim to have a one-size-fits-all disciplinary approach since sexual misconduct can vary from case to case.
Dean of Students Stacy Tepp emphasized the time and attention given to the policy; it had been in the works long before its introduction to the student body. When she started as dean three years ago, she and then-principal Ken Jaffe and the counselor at the time, Emily Barbee, met with a group of seniors nearly weekly to discuss concerns surrounding sexual misconduct.
Then, last year, Cerena Karmaliani, Serene Kalugdan and Naomi Kempcke (‘24) attended a summit on sexual misconduct at the Georgetown Day School. Upon learning that SPA was in the process of redrafting its sexual misconduct policy they wanted to be involved.
“One of the seminars that we attended was about how to create an effective policy,” Kalugdan said, “led by a school in Seattle that had a student-driven policy with a bunch of stuff like interim measures and how to report…and we wanted to implement those aspects in our school.”
Karmaliani, Kalugdan and Kempcke returned with a vision: to make a policy that was transparent and inclusive.
“Before, sexual harassment was just a short paragraph buried under bullying,” Kalugdan said. “We wanted students to understand their rights, and to know what support systems exist–especially interim measures to protect survivors during investigations.”
Karmaliani said that the policy provides the necessary framework in its wording. Given the number of people who helped create it—including law enforcement, lawyers, consultants from other independent schools, students, and administrators—she feels confident in the language.
Its application, however, has been more challenging.
“For a new policy, what the school tends to go upon is not only just the language that’s in the handbook but what they’ve done in the past. So you need some sort of precedence to make sure that you have the same consequences…When it’s a fully new policy that hasn’t been enacted, you can understand why there’s some confusion and lack of action there,” Karmaliani said.
Tepp sees room for improvement in the school’s overall culture to prevent sexual misconduct.
“I see a lot of competition among students, and I wish it was more care, like we’re in this together,” she said.
For sophomore Nico Martin, improvement of the sexual misconduct policy would involve more communication: “I think one big assembly is good, but also more little stuff throughout the year, to just keep it fresh in your mind,” Martin said.
Acknowledging that educating and supporting the community about sexual misconduct remains a priority, Tepp hopes that a group of students will attend the Georgetown Summit again next year and plans to continue assemblies and inviting input.