This story is the second in a seven-part package about sex ed and sexual health at Menlo. It is an extension of the March 2021 47.4 print edition of The Coat of Arms.

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Menlo’s counseling team implemented multi-advocacy group discussions led by faculty who were trained and labeled as Sexual Health Advocates for the sophomore and senior classes during February; the program was intended to be a culmination of previous administrative work surrounding sexual health at Menlo. These meetings took place during the student life block, and advocates were not present during the event. The focus of the sophomore groups was consent, while senior discussions covered safe spaces and relationships.

Menlo’s focus in training several faculty members in the field of sexual health was to create more on-campus aids for students who may feel the need to have an outlet other than family and friends regarding sexual health and relationships. The counseling team made an effort to choose staff members whom students would feel most comfortable discussing such topics. “The counseling team identified which adults on campus might have good rapport with students, while also being mindful of age gaps [and] thinking about who would be young enough to relate to the students and still have that maturity level,” said previous staff member and Sexual Health Advocate Roger Zamora. Many of the faculty members who were recruited had previous experience dealing with or teaching sexual health, so they had already built a foundation of comfort when it comes to openly discussing sensitive topics. Required training took place over two days last summer. “Our trainer led us through an activity unpacking lots of material in terms of terminology, going through a lesson plan and going through a design process of thinking about how the 10th grade program looks different than the 12th grade program and vice versa,” Zamora said.

The counseling team had initially hoped to deploy these meetings in the fall, but in response to the 2020-2021 school year starting completely online, these workshops were pushed further back until hybrid learning had been kicked off and students were more familiar with the hybrid schedule. The goal is to eventually integrate these seminars into every grade level, yet the sophomores and seniors are the only classes where they have been held to date. The counselors decided to initially prioritize sophomores and seniors was because the sophomores most recently took the Sexual Education class as a part of freshman seminar, meaning the content is fresh in their minds, which creates a solid foundation to build off of. As for the seniors, the counseling team believed that it is important for them to be “really thinking about safe spaces and relationships as they’re reaching adulthood, but also the seniors are the last class who never had [sexual education] as a part of their freshmen rotation, so [faculty] really wanted to make sure that they are prioritized,” Zamora said.

Zamora explained that going into the first implementations of the sexual health discussions, faculty were prepared for the fact that these discussions may be drastically impacted by the online setting. Due to the sensitivity of the topic, Sexual Health Advocates were aware that students would have a variety of comfort levels when it comes to participating in group discussions. However, Zamora was pleasantly surprised with how his particular session went. “I was really happy to see that we had a number of active participants in class, and that really helped carry the conversation. That was really beneficial because even though not everyone was an active participant, they might be listening and processing in a different way.” Students had full freedom and accountability for their own participation, and while some students opted out of speaking up, many took advantage of the private chat feature on Zoom and were able to actively participate through sending messages and questions directly to their Sexual Health Advocate.

Through a survey sent out by Dean of Student Life Programs Eve Kulbieda, the counseling team received lots of anonymous feedback on the first sessions, including both constructive criticism and praise. In summary, many students from both the sophomore and senior classes believed that while they felt supported in the format of these conversations, they didn’t learn anything new with the topics covered. Upper School Counselor and Sexual Health Advocate Jake Fauver addressed these comments. “Admittedly, I feel it is important to stand in a position where it’s better to be repetitive in the space of consent.” However, he acknowledges the fact that there is room to grow and is eager to receive more feedback from students as these conversations continue to be carried out.