During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, leading up to the December 6th Memorial, we speak with Stella Grand, a recent GISS graduate and passionate youth activist. 35 years after the massacre at École Polytechnique in Montreal, Stella’s work on updating sexual violence policies in secondary schools is a powerful continuation of the fight against gender-based violence.
Stella Grand took her passion for creating safer student environments into her own hands by founding the Wellness Initiative for Student Empowerment (WISE). Despite the challenges, Stella is committed to this cause, working multiple jobs to fund her initiative. You might spot her selling chocolates and ice cream at Harlan’s or as a barista at the Tree House, all to support the work she deeply believes in. “I have ADHD and realized early on that university might not suit my learning style,” she explains. “So, I chose to dedicate my time to this project and see if I can make a change now.”
Stella’s journey began with a personal experience of sexual assault in elementary school and she knew she wanted to change things when she had to deal with outdated policies throughout high school. “There is an enormous variety of gaps needing to be filled that should have been addressed a long time ago,” says Stella. “I found out, for example, that it is not mandatory for schools, other than post-secondary, to have response plans for sexual assault/harassment on campus, which I think is unacceptable.”
Pursuing change
She began researching secondary education policies in grade 11, which evolved into the Wellness Initiative for Student Empowerment when she was in grade 12. WISE is a multi-goal initiative to nurture the evolution of how youth are treated. “I am pursuing different significant projects, such as educational presentations about ADHD and mental health, and advocate for change in different areas. A recent win was the creation of a policy/protocol for secondary schools to prevent and respond to sexual violence among students that is more trauma-informed. I have been given hands-on support from Island Health and we now have our document under review by a subject matter expert, but we still have a few steps to go before we can secure its release. We might have to pass a bill, but my goal is to get this new policy implemented not only in our school district but in the rest of Canada as well.”
Stella’s own healing process began when she started The Circle Education’s Pass it On program in grade 10. “I was really struggling in grade 9, as a new high schooler being in the same school with the person who assaulted me,” says Stella. “After that year I made it my mission to heal myself. I was part of the Pass it On program and being in that group, as well as being in drama class, gave me the power to keep going. The program also gave me the tools to talk about what happened to me. It was a key factor in what I do now.”
On December 6th, we commemorate the tragic events of the Montreal Massacre in 1989 when a gunman killed fourteen women because of their gender at Polytechnique Montreal. Although this tragedy happened 35 years ago, femicide and gender-based violence – violence committed against someone based on their gender, gender expression, gender identity, or perceived gender – are still very common.
Sexual harassment in schools
“I recently found an anonymous survey, conducted by CBC, of more than 4,000 students across Canada between the ages of 14 and 21, about school-related physical and verbal abuse, as well as about sexual harassment and assault,” Stella continues. “Fifteen percent of female respondents said they’ve had a sexual act forced upon them by another student. This means that in a classroom of about twenty female students, three say they’ve been sexually assaulted by another student. I was really shocked by those numbers.”
Stella’s work reminds us that the fight against gender-based violence continues. “I feel a mixture of many emotions when I think about what happened in Montreal,” she says. “I feel sorrow, I feel pain for the victims and their families and I feel gratitude to know our history in the fight for change. We have to keep talking about this. If we as a community can use the information and resources we have now, to transform how we react to another, we will grow. We need to teach youth to have compassion and empathy for themselves and their peers, if not through education, then by example so we can create a safer world and a better future.”
You can find out more about WISE through the Instagram account @wiseproject2023
Do you want to know more about the Montreal Massacre? You can find a report here on how the tragedy unfolded on December 6th, 1989. Trigger warning: this is a detailed description of violent actions.
