Julissa Chavez
5923 S Tripp Chicago, IL. 60629 5/30/16 Forrest Claypool Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools 42 W. Madison St. Chicago, IL. 60602 Dear Mr. Claypool, My name is Julissa Chavez and I am a senior at Social Justice High School in Chicago. Recently I was asked to choose an issue that I am passionate about to research and take action on to change for the better. I chose to research the topic of rape/sexual assault. I chose this topic because I consider myself a feminist and believe that people should have a right to what happens to their bodies. I am concerned with CPS’ dress code policy because I feel that it promotes rape culture since it sexualizes young girl’s bodies, advocates the genderization of men, and interferes with our learning environments when teachers ask for us to change since what we are wearing is considered to be too “revealing” in hot temperatures, even 95 degree weather. This is offensive to my body and my education since, according to the policy, what I wear is more important than my own ambition to learn. I hope to find out if there is any possible way to change this policy. I found that the CPS Student Code of Conduct states: “Students who fail to follow a school’s dress code or uniform policy may be given detentions or excluded from extracurricular activities, but may not be barred from attending class. A student may receive additional consequences for violating a school’s dress code or uniform policy if the student’s dress disrupts or may disrupt the educational process.” Although a dress code may be enforced at a school to prevent any sort of violence, it specifically targets girls to not wearing sandals, spaghetti-strap shirts, or short shorts. This supports the notion of the objectification of women, therefore, what a girl wears at a CPS school should not “disrupt the educational process” if she is only trying to be comfortable. It is unfair that a girl must change to discomforting clothing to justify your own policy. It promotes rape culture because the code, in other words, is stating that a girl’s choice of clothing is more important than the valuable education she can be gaining. One suggestion I have is to add a course, or even a class, teaching males and others to not overly sexualize females, and for young women to acknowledge that they are more important than what your policy is promoting. This would improve the safety of girls since boys will be taught to be respectful of women, causing a decrease in the sexualization of their bodies. These examples really establish the reason why I would like to make a difference on rape culture/sexual assault, and please consider my research found from the CPS Student Code of Conduct. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you or a representative of CPS. Sincerely, Julissa Chavez Senior at Greater Lawndale School of Social Justice, Class of 2016 |
Luis Nava
3004 s. Hamlin Chicago, IL. 60623 6/1/2016 Addressed to Bernie Sanders BERNIE 2016 PO BOX 905 BURLINGTON, VT 05402 Dear Bernie Sanders, I’ve been following your campaign for quite a while now and have supported your campaign. I’m a senior at Social Justice High School in Chicago. At my high school we have to do a final project that is all of our hard work we’ve done and show that there's a topic that we’re passionate about. My topic is about rape/sexual assault, and the reason why I decided this issue is because of what I’ve experienced when I was a child, and over the years I blamed myself for the actions I’ve done but I was never taught to think different. “only yes means yes” — should be taught to high school and college students.” Which those who are of young age should be more informed and taught that theirs way to learn and respect to one another. As a child I wasn’t asked as much because my parents felt as if they didn’t care to much about it but once I told them that the sexual assault happen to me, they felt as if they weren’t there for me when times were bad and they apologize. Moving forward to bring awareness, their should be programs to teach those of younger age that No means No and that it isn’t okay to touch each others private parts. Also stated that: “And if a student rapes a fellow student, that has got to be understood to be a very serious crime. It has got to get outside of the school and have a police investigation” People argue that Bernie Sanders doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that he needs to learn more about this topic. Bernie says that Rape is a terrible crime and that it should be dealt as a crime and actually talk and get helpe from the police instead of taking it as a student issue. Agree with you, but in some cases we do see this corruption in court cases and in policemen that it doesn’t work out the way. And if it doesn’t then the victim is stuck being with the rapist and the charges aren’t brought up. But with school guidelines, it’s a much safer environment to open up to a school that would actually listen to you and understand what’s happening. I do agree with both these cases but with our criminal justice being corrupt, we have to understand that it should be safe for the victim to open up. Which is why people see Bernie sanders comment as ignorant. But for me I feel like he wasn’t ignorant, he wanted to have a better way to handle these situations rather than the school handling them. Sincerely Luis Nava Senior at Greater Lawndale School of Social Justice, Class of 2016 |
Damarys Salmeron
5558 S. Talman Ave. 06/02/16 Lizzy Weiss United Talent Agency 9336 Civic Center Drive Beverly Hill, CA 90210-3604 USA Dear Lizzy Weiss, My name is Damarys Salmeron, but I prefer Dammy, and I am a senior at Social Justice High School in Chicago. Recently I was asked to choose an issue that I am passionate about to research and take action on to change for the better. As I watched Switched at Birth, the episodes where Bay gets raped, I found a message. Bay struggles to move on because she was being rape-blamed and people looked up to her even though she wasn’t ready to talk about it, so I chose to research the topic of Rape Culture and Sexual Assault. I chose this issue because I’ve experienced a situation at the age of six and this issue has been accumulating worldwide and in my community because of oversexualzation, and society rape-blames victims. Therefore, since I will living on campus next fall at Wells College, I am concerned with my safety and the safety of my peers, both men and women because men also become victims of rape culture. I hope to find out if there is any difference in perspectives around the world and in my community of how oversexualization and rape-blaming victims supports rape culture, and how informed people are with this issue. I found that nudity isn’t sexualized in most of the countries in Europe, and in the Americas, nudity can’t be shown from 6am to 10pm (how ridiculous); therefore, I learned that women in heels are expected to be more feminine and alluring. This information will help because there is no use to oversexualize everything we see. One suggestion I have is to change the rules that a woman shouldn’t be taught about how to stay safe based on what safety weapons to have, what clothing we should wear, and manners to defend ourselves; therefore, I want to change the way that men respect a man more than a woman. An example of this is, if a guy is trying to approach me and my response would be “I have a boyfriend” and he backs away with a “sorry.” This would improve the morals of society to finally get rid of rape culture, but it might take more than that. These examples really helpful to use to start fighting for an end at rape culture, and please consider my research found at lnavajchavezdsalmeronfireproject.weebly.com. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you or a representative of your company. Sincerely, Damarys Salmeron Senior at Greater Lawndale High School of Social Justice, Class of 2016 |