Building Consent Culture (BCC) was a powerful course at Cleveland High School that got cut from the schedule at the end of last year. Many students, especially ones who forecasted for the alternative leadership class, were disappointed and upset with the administration’s decision because they felt that their voice was being stifled.
An elective course founded and led by teacher Gaye Chapman, BCC helped students be open and communicative about their feelings regarding sexual consent, misogyny, and other social issues.
Dropping BCC was a kick in the gut to many dedicated people who were involved in the class. Cleveland students were upset about the lack of transparency in deciding to drop the course, and felt as if they had no say in the issue.
Principal JoAnn Wadkins said she understands where students are coming from. She pointed out that when course decisions are made, teachers are the first to be informed because they teach the course, and that because the district cut the school’s budget, BCC was dropped because it is not a mandatory course, such as health or science.
To compensate for the cut, students could enroll in one of three leadership classes: advanced leadership, Cleveland Alliance for Racial Equity (CARE) leadership, and intro to leadership, and it was the administration’s hope that students from BCC would join. Jessie Eller-Isaacs is the new advanced leadership teacher, taking over for Jessica Sawyer, and Paul Kreutz is the intro to leadership teacher.
Many have been questioning whether BCC is at all incorporated into the new leadership course.
“No, not as of right now, but we are striving to make working groups to talk about BCC-related issues as well as talking to students who were previously in BCC,” Eller-Isaacs said, adding that BCC topics will be discussed and won’t disappear with the class.
Issues such as misogyny and rape culture have not gone away and need to continue to be addressed, students say.
Junior Wynnie Posedel joined the class in the second semester last year, and at the time, advocated strongly to keep the class on the schedule.
“I’ve only been in this class for two months, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I regret not doing it sooner,” Posedel said last spring..
There are currently no previous BCC students who are taking the advanced leadership course, but there are a few past BCC students currently in the CARE leadership class. Past BCC students said that they hope the leadership classes will be ready to uphold the old BCC reputation, but they did not join the new leadership class because they didn’t know how much of BCC would actually be incorporated into a leadership course.
BCC was an amazing opportunity because it was a student-led class where students felt comfortable talking about sensitive topics and were allowed to advocate for themselves, Posedel said.
Though BCC is officially not a class in Cleveland, Wadkins said that it is not unheard of for classes to come back in future school years. And she mentioned how there are many clubs and activities in which students can partake in to get involved even without BCC.
