Girl Up Asks Everyone to Wear Orange on Feb 7

Girl Up is a girl-centered leadership development club at Arrowhead with over 85 members. Members focus on equity for girls and women in spaces where they are unheard or underrepresented.

Jennifer Passer is an English teacher and also the Girl Up Advisor at Arrowhead High School. Passler says the club members are trying to make changes at our school and to get the word out about the club and what the club stands for.

Anyone can join the club at any time. To stay in the club, students need to participate in two to three events per semester. 

Passler said that the club has posted information about helplines to get the word about getting help if you are in an unhealthy relationship. 

Passler thinks starting the conversation that the relationship you are in is unhealthy with the person or recognizing that the relationship you are in is unhealthy is important because only 33% of teens in unhealthy relationships are seeking help.

Passler and the Girl Up club members are encouraging students to wear orange on Tuesday, February 7 to show solidarity and to raise awareness about dating violence. 

Passler said their goal is to bring this important topic into the open and provide a clear message: everyone deserves a healthy relationship.

When looking at relationships, Passler says, “It’s important to look and ask yourself if you want someone to treat your sibling or someone close to you the way you are being treated by your significant other.”

Passler also wants to also remind us that “most people consider abusive relationships with physical abuse and fail to consider verbal and mental abuse.”

Club members started posting flyers for teen relationship abuse on February 1st. 

The club is going to a self-defense class on February 3rd where Passler encourages all members and non-members to join them. It is from 4-5 tonight at the Lake Country Rec center.

They are also having a body image discussion in Passlers classroom, N201, on the 9th and will be meeting for a weekly book discussion on the book, “Know my Name,” a book about date rape in college.