The Palo Alto High School’s Responsive Inclusive Safe Environment (RISE) club is gearing up for the annual alumni panel on Nov. 14, continuing their mission to spread awareness around sexual assault and the importance of consent.
According to junior and RISE co-president Leilani Chen, this year’s panel will invite alumni to share their post-high school experiences with navigating college life.
“The panel will cover topics such as consent, relationships, dating, partying, sex and drugs,” Chen said.
According to Chen she hopes students walk away understanding the importance of communication.
“We need to value communication, value consent, and value listening to each other,” Chen said.
RISE began in response to sexual assault reports and harassment on campus and has since organized events on consent education and sexual misconduct prevention.
“It[RISE] was established seven years ago,” Schwarzbach said. “It was established in response to a series of sexual assault reports and harassment on campus at Paly”
Schwarzbach said the club was started specifically because of the lack of attention the school gave to the reports.
“Our administration was not doing the best job at making our school aware of what was happening,” Schwarzbach said. “We weren’t doing school assemblies or prevention consent education, so a group of students came together and decided we needed to have a student task force.”
Since then, RISE has hosted events such as Denim Day, consent workshops, and the annual senior panel. Most recently, the club collaborated with the Viking Cheer team for a teal-out football game on Sept. 26 to raise awareness for ovarian cancer and sexual assault.
According to Chen, RISE partnered with the cheer team because of the similarity between their objectives.
“The teal theme was building off of the teal-out that the cheer team had done starting two years ago,” Chen said. “Since these are both issues that are important to reproductive health, we collaborated.”
Handing out teal ribbon pins and bead necklaces at the game while decked out in teal, Chen said she hopes to spread the message of consent.
“Our main goal is to bring awareness and to talk about our cause … the importance of having a campus that doesn’t tolerate sexual misconduct and keeping in check and knowing that it’s important to have healthy relationships,” Chen said.
According to sophomore RISE club member Alessia Kalemeer, the football game was successful at inspiring support.
“It’s important that we’re spreading awareness for ovarian cancer and survivors of sexual assault because it’s something that’s important to be represented, so people know that they’re not alone,” Kalemeer said. “Everyone’s been very supportive, and a lot of people have been taking the pins and necklaces.”
Looking ahead, Chen said RISE plans to continue expanding its events and outreach efforts into the spring semester.
“We also have various other events coming up in the spring semester,” Chen said. “Join us in room 811 on Wednesdays with Mr. [Austin] Davis.”