By Alex Wyckoff
Staff Writer
An assembly was held by People Achieving Complete Equality in the Mira Costa auditorium on Friday, March 9, during second and third period.
The assembly was titled “It Hurts,” and discussed the issues of not just physical, but also of emotional abuse in families, friendships, and relationships.
“The assembly is about domestic violence,” PACE supervisor Rocky Wilson said, “How it affects students in their family life, as well as how it affects them in their individual lives. It can be domestic abuse, or it could be physical abuse.”
The assembly began with the presentation of a short DVD which introduced the topic of domestic violence, and was followed by speakers who talked about domestic violence.
“Everyone’s been researching stats and figures on domestic violence,” Wilson said. “They’ve been working with the guest speaker, and helping to refine the speech to be appropriate for high school.”
The first guest speaker was Victor Rivas, who grew up in an abusive family in Hawthorne, and wrote a book titled “Family Matters.” He is also a well known actor featured in movies such as “The Mask of Zorro,” and is the national spokesperson against domestic violence.
“We got the whole class involved,” senior PACE member Sara Kimberly said. “They were making posters, doing research, and getting into contact with speakers.”
There were other speakers as well, including a student from Costa, Alex Zech, and speakers from the 1736 House, which is a family crisis center in Hermosa Beach.
“We wanted to inform everyone,” junior PACE member McKenna Howard said. “People only think as abuse as hitting people. They don’t think of insulting comments, or of emotional abuse. So we think that these stories will really impact people and help them understand it.”
This assembly helped audiences to understand PACE’s purpose and goals.
“People mostly think that PACE is just a drug and alcohol related group,” Howard sai., “But really it’s about all of the problems that are impacting, and can hurt people during their time in high school.”
There were high hopes for the assembly before it was held, and afterwards it was a well received presentation.
“We think this is one of our best ones this year,” Kimberly said, “It relates to a lot of kids at Costa, who are going through something like this, and don’t have the courage to speak out. We’re hoping that by this assembly, people will be able to come forth and get help when they need it.”
Leave a Reply