Jesuit’s Social Justice Week runs from Monday, March 10th until Friday, March 14th and is designed to inform Jesuit students about issues in our society that have great meaning.
According to an article from jesuitnews.com written by Lucy Menendez in 2021, she gives a preview of Social Justice Week which began in 2021.
“At the origin of this event they didn't have a set topic for the entire week but instead had a broad variety of topics that students could choose from. Starting in 2022, they narrowed it down to a broad topic that people could focus on but their presentations and specific ideas were endless.”
This year's theme, Criminal Justice, was chosen directly by students with the help of the director of the DEI office, Ms. Montez.
The criminal justice system is a framework of law enforcement agencies involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing individuals suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. It is a complex system with many interconnected components. Offering various student workshops will help students at Jesuit gain a deeper understanding of the different facets of the criminal justice system and how it impacts our lives today.
Social Justice Week is set up with a keynote speaker that will be presented to the entire school. The keynote speaker this year is Ethan Thrower, an alternative school social worker committed to social justice and restorative practices. He also is the author of a kids book about incarceration.
Usually, we have one to three keynote speakers; however, this year, the DEI office decided to let the students choose who their second keynote speaker will be.
“We have one less keynote speaker this year and added more student choice,” Ms. Montez said. “On Wednesday morning students can choose from a variety of professionals in the field to share about their work.
“Social justice week exercises the head, heart, hand and voice of each member of the Jesuit high school community,” Montez said. “Students will be able to participate in 3 days of presentations, workshops and actions. The community celebration assembly and a mass highlighting the multilingual Jesuit community ends off the week.”
This year there are a total of 46 student and teacher led workshops. After the keynote speaker, students can find a link to sign up for these workshops in their email through an app called sched. Sched is a first come first serve website and when the workshop fills up no one else can get in it.
Senior Audrey Bayless is one of the workshop leaders. Her workshop is about rape kits and how over 100,000 in America are sitting in rooms on backlog going untested.
“I am hoping that our workshop will raise awareness about rape kits and first just what they are and second how the backlog is a huge issue in our country,” Bayless said. “Our overall goal is just awareness and to hopefully try to dismantle some stigmas surrounding rape culture.”
Teachers and other members of the Jesuit High School community are able to lead these workshops as well. Senior history teacher Jerry Hahn teaches AP US Government and Politics as well as AP US Comparative Government and is leading a workshop this year that covers comparative Justice systems, describing the legal systems and prison systems of Russia, Iran and China.
“Each year I find the chosen topic of Social Justice week to be meaningful and I feel by focusing on a specific concept, students, faculty and staff can come away with greater awareness of the issues. I have presented every year since the beginning of this program,” Hahn said.
Social Justice Week starts on March 10th and ends on March 14th. Students and faculty should check their email for an invitation to sign up through sched the week prior to Social Justice week.
