NOCTILUCA Spring 2016 Vol.XXI Issue 11

OPINIONS Appleton, Wisconsin Spring 2016 Volume XXI Issue II

Page 4

Students should not opt out of consent lessons By Carl Zuleger According to the Rape,

Noctiluca Mission Statement The Noctiluca and north noct.com are the student-run news sources of Appleton North High School. Noctiluca and northnoct.com are designated public forums for student ex- pression. Student editors make all content decisions. Noctiluca’s mission is to publish information relevant to its readers and its commu- nity. Its goal is to maintain high ethical standards and provide a designated public forum for free and responsible expression of views. The newspaper and website welcome diversity of scope, depth and breadth of cover- age in order to heighten mutual understanding and awareness through our entire community. Appleton North High School 5000 N. Ballard Road Appleton, WI 54913 Phone: (920) 832-4300 Mr. Ramponi, staff advisor, at: ramponiaaron@aasd .k12.wi.us. Editorial Staff Senior Editor-In-Chief Megha Uberoi Co-Junior Editor-In-Chief

member, decided to take an op- portunity to educate freshmen classes on what consent is and why it is important. According to the Wisconsin Legislature, consent is words or overt ac- tions by a person who is com- petent to give informed consent indicating a freely given agree- ment to have sexual intercourse or sexual contact. The Legis- lature cites two cases in which a person would be considered unfit to give consent, the first being “A person suffering from a mental illness or defect which impairs capacity to appraise personal conduct,” and the sec- ond being, “ A person who is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act.” So essentially, if some- one says no, or is unable to say yes, then the answer is no. It’s that simple. This information is crucial to the betterment of society. It is vital for all to have a working understanding, which is exactly what club leaders were working to achieve by visiting freshmen classes. The catch, however, is that students had an option to not attend the presentation due to its sensitive subject matter. This allowance was unaccept-

Abuse, & Incest National Net- work (also known as RAINN), every 107 seconds, someone experiences sexual assault. On average, there are 293,000 people above the age of twelve victimized by sexual assault each year. 68 percent of those sexual assaults are not reported to the police, and 98 percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail. Each victim is a real per- son, one with thoughts and emotions. Each one is a person like you. What they experi- enced, to have their basic hu- man rights invaded in a cruel and abusive manner, is irrefut- ably awful and unacceptable. Now, there are numerous ar- ticles that have been written about how one can protect themselves from rape, but re- cently the focus has shifted. The goal, the endgame, is to stop people from raping others in the first place, which starts with a clear understanding of the term consent. Consent is the key aspect that determines whether or not a sexual act can be considered rape, which is why Gender Equality Club, of which I am a

One in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused in the U.S. Statistic by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Graphic by Kate Bennett

able, for a few reasons. First of all, by allowing students to not attend, it de-emphasizes the im- portance of consent. It gets the students thinking “well, con- sent must not be that important, if we don’t have to go...” Sec-

ondly, if attending the presenta- tion is optional, it implies that asking for consent is optional. Not only is it morally wrong to have sex with someone against their wishes, but it is illegal as well. In order to keep in line with the law, one must know what the law is. And thirdly, if freshman health can spend an entire unit talking about sex ed- ucation (which only touches on consent), they can surely han- dle a presentation that doesn’t even last an hour. The only reasonable in- stance in which it would be acceptable for a student to re- fuse to be educated on consent would be if they have already been a victim of rape. Then talking about the issue of con- sent may be a trigger to them, and it is very understandable if they would like to avoid that situation. But for everyone else, education on consent is too important to have the op- portunity to opt out of it.

Nora Ptacek Erik Bakken Managing Editor

Elise Painton News Editor Katharine Hackney Opinions Editor Kate Bennett Features Editor Rachel Flom Co-Centerspread Editor Fatima Ali Leah Dreyer

Culture Editor Maddy Schilling

Sports Editor AJ Floodstrand Photography Editor Sofia Voet

Copy Editor Abby Davies Advertising/Social Media Rachel Brosman Graphics Editor Morgan Stuedemann Online Editor Abby Plankey Advisor Mr. Ramponi Contributors Fatima Ali

Freshman classes attend presentations, hosted by various clubs, every late start Wednesday. Photo by Adison Cole

H umans of n ortH

Erik Bakken Kate Bennett Rachel Brosman Maddie Clark Rachel Flom AJ Floodstrand Caroline Holmes Olivia Molter Salma Abdel-Azim

“When I was a little kid, I really struggled with math until my dad taught me how to add and subtract. Now I’m in Calculus BC, and I am planning to study applied mathematics in college.” - Rishi Pawar

“My first show at North was the Tempest; I played a younger ver- sion of my sister, and I was so afraid of the di- rector. Now this is my twentieth show at North, and I am the student di- rector. In my position, I get to see everything from a different per- spective. It’s a very empathetic role; I can’t participate in anything going on onstage, but I still feel everything that’s happening good or bad.” - Molly Biskupic

Circee Novick Elise Painton Ally Price

Nora Ptacek Maeve Salm Maddy Schilling Morgan Stuedemann

Molly Biskupic is an assistant director for the musical . Photo by Kate Bennett

Rishi Pawar is a senior at North. Photo by Kate Bennett

Sonia Tallorth Megha Uberoi Sofia Voet Carl Zuleger