‘She believed she could so she did’: Balkin formed club to fight sexual harassment at ARMS

Thirteen-year-old Amhest Regional Middle schooler Inanna Balkin didn’t mean to start an anti-sexual harassment club. But when she was sitting in seventh-grade science class, learning about how atoms never actually touch each other, suddenly, “there was a student who said something like ‘If two atoms can’t touch then I can sexually assault someone without touching them’ or ‘slap someone’s ass without touching them.’” 

Disturbed, Balkin and her friends decided to take it to the school’s principal Diego Sharon. But incidents like these continued, so she and her friends kept talking about them and they eventually decided to form a club to fight back. They named it POSH–People Opposed to Sexual Harassment.

POSH’s first order of business was to distribute pamphlets drawing attention to the issue of sexual harassment in schools. Initially, they looked to Principal Sharon for the go-ahead to distribute flyers advertising their club, but when they did not receive a timely response, they decided to post the flyers anyway. 

“We got this email from him being like ‘Why did you do that? I didn’t tell you you could do that,’” said Balkin. 

Balkin reports that she preferred handing out the flyers without permission than waiting any longer when things felt so urgent. Balkin feels this was POSH’s first big success. “We took initiative,” she said. “Breaking the rules even when it’s ‘good trouble’ is a little bit scary but I was very proud of myself.”

Now Sharon counts himself as a supporter of their club, and he has endorsed them leading all-school events like assemblies and advisories to educate the school community. 

But Balkin acknowledged the limitations of what students are able to do without a larger school-wide culture shift and enforcement of policies and practices to hold students accountable and added that she feels that middle schoolers have had to do some of the work adults need to be doing to create a safer climate at ARMS.

Balkin said she sees POSH’s ultimate mission as ending sexual harassment in schools and making school a safe place for all students. Their club advisor is nurse Celia Maysles.

She noted that students perceived as female or LGBTQ+ are often the most targeted by harassers. “I think [a safe and healthy middle school environment would be where] people are safe to have their own identities,” she said. “This looks like a place where students are free to be who they are and don’t have to walk down the hallways and hear misogynist and transphobic and homophobic slurs.”

By the end of her seventh-grade year, Balkin had surveyed 51 ARMS classmates about sexual harassment and had found that 34 of the 51 had “‘heard or seen sexually harassing comments or graffiti in bathrooms, classrooms, and hallways.”

By her eighth grade year, she had written an anti-sexual harassment op-ed at ARMS in which she urged people in her community to take notice and action. She noted that sexual harassment was a violation of Title IX law and that not only should “classrooms be free of homophobic and transphobic slurs” but “lunch lines should be free of comments about our bodies” and hallways should be free of jokes about rape.

She ended by saying, “We all want our school to be a fun and safe place…we must unite to combat this problem by educating ourselves and others, reporting, and actively rejecting sexual harassment.”

In February, club members spoke at a conference and helped facilitate an educator training on sexual harassment. POSH members recently received a grant to run a trio of student, parent, and teacher trainings in the fall of 2023. And on Friday, May 19, POSH led a sexual harassment awareness assembly for ARMS students and staff.

Even with POSH’s efforts to create a culture change at ARMS, club members have realized that their effort to educate the student body has, in some ways, backfired. “I think people are becoming aware of what sexual harassment is,” she said, “But people are also starting to joke more about sexual harassment.”

Unfortunately, POSH’s meeting time is not public due to concerns over students potentially dropping in and harassing club members.  

“There’s been a small culture shift,” Balkin said, “But it hasn’t been large enough. We have to keep going.”

To learn about the I Have The Right To pledge Balkin and other ARMS community members signed to stop harassment, click the link above.