Boys Run and Coaching Boys into Men are two programs run by Sitkans Against Family Violence. Boys Run is looking for coaches in the community — no running experience required! Coordinators Rebecca Foster and Amanda Capatummino discuss who they’re looking for. Both focus on social and emotional growth for boys.

Downloadable audio.

The Mt. Edgecumbe High School wrestling team. Emory Johnson helps hold up the poster. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

This fall, student wrestlers at Mt. Edgecumbe took part in a program called, ‘Coaching Boys into Men.’ The idea is to teach young players how to have healthy relationships even if, in the case of Mt. Edgecumbe, half of them will grow up to be women.

Downloadable audio.

The entire student body of Mt. Edgecumbe, more 400 students from over 100 villages across Alaska, is packed into the school’s gym for a pep rally– a rally that’s about more than just the regional wrestling tourney.

Two student wrestlers sign the poster after completing the ‘Coaching Boys into Men’ program. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

The Mt. Edgecumbe wrestling team is being recognized for completing the ‘Coaching Boys into Men’ program, an effort to promote healthy relationships and reduce abuse and sexual assault. 

Emory Johnson, a four-year senior from Bethel, is one of the wrestlers.

That’s right, Johnson is a girl. Despite competing in a sport historically geared towards boys, Johnson isn’t shy about her strength.

“My mom never really wanted me to join because she doesn’t like the way the guys beat on the girls. I’m like, ‘Well, it can go both ways,’” Johnson joked.

Johnson is one of more than 20 girls on the team of over 40 wrestlers. Girls have wrestled here for over a decade thanks to their coach, Mike Kimber.

“I’m at teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe,” explained Kimber. “I teach Japanese, English, and a few other classes and I’m the wrestling coach. I’ve been the wrestling coach here for 17 years at Mt. Edgecumbe.”

Mike Kimber has been coaching wrestling at Mt. Edgecumbe High School for 17 years. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Kimber himself is a graduate of Mt. Edgecumbe. When he was a wrestler, he said his coach worked with the athletes both on and off the mat. It’s that mission, to develop not just a good athlete but a good person, that inspired Kimber to join the ‘Coaching Boys into Men’ program.

“Whether you’re a girl or a boy, everybody needs this information,” urged Julia Smith, the prevention director for Sitkans Against Family Violence.

Smith introduced the program to teachers and coaches at Mt. Edgecumbe a year and a half ago.

“And a lot of them asked, ‘I don’t have all boys on my team, can I still use this?’ So, we called the national folks at Futures Without Violence and they said, ‘Yes, go ahead and use it,’” explained Smith.

The program spans an entire season, with one 15-minute lesson each week. The topics include communicating boundaries, digital disrespect, and the importance of consent. The lesson on consent was the only one Coach Kimber chose to teach separately.

“We kept the boys on the mat and the girls went to another room and did that [lesson],” Kimber said.

Mt. Edgecumbe’s wrestling team was the only one in Sitka to take part in the program this year, but Julia Smith said she’s trying to change that. It’s already caught on in other Southeast communities like Juneau.

There are more than 40 students on the Mt. Edgecumbe wrestling team, half of whom are girls. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

“The basketball team in Ketchikan has also used the program,” added Smith. “The basketball team in Kake has used the program, so we’re really trying to build momentum and get this going throughout our state and have all coaches use this as a tool for reiterating the things they’re already teaching.”

That’s the beauty of the program. The messenger is one that’s usually trusted and the message is one that’s critical for adulthood. Wrestler Emory Johnson gets that.

“Yeah, it’s called “[Coaching] Boys into Men,’ but the questions are still the same. It’s just, ‘What does respect mean to you?’ I mean, respect means respect to everybody,” Johnson said.

And that’s a lesson that every Mt. Edgecumbe wrestler now knows well.

Mt. Edgecumbe will host the Region V wrestling tournament this weekend, with matches on both Friday and Saturday.

Sitka High student government meets with the school board. In addition to DV and tolerance programs, the council discussed energy efficiency in school buildings, and the high cost of activities. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Sitka High’s student body is hoping to create a more respectful and tolerant environment in the school, and they’ve taken their plans to the school board.

In a joint session this week (Tue Feb 3), Sitka High’s student council and the school board met to discuss a pair of proposals that would confront sexual violence and discrimination head-on.

Downloadable audio.

It was just two or three years ago that Sitka’s students and school board sat in this same room, the high school library, ate pizza, and discussed installing Wi-Fi in the commons.
Connectivity is important. But it’s a means to an end. Students have a different goal in mind now.

There was a study done on 282 adult women in Sitka, and they found that 47-percent of them had experienced some form of domestic or sexual violence in their lifetimes here in Sitka.

This is student council president senior Owen Fulton. He’s referring to the Alaska Victimization Survey conducted by the Justice Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Women in communities across Alaska were surveyed, including in Sitka. Fulton’s stats are right on the money: In Sitka, and elsewhere around the state, 47 out of every 100 women surveyed reported experiencing intimate partner violence, sexual assault, or both.

Fulton presented the school board with a resolution asking the district to adopt the “Coaching Boys Into Men” program, in partnership with Sitka’s domestic violence shelter.

This struck me as a big shift for student government, addressing sexual violence. After the meeting adjourned, I caught Fulton in the hallway and asked him to explain.

Fulton – Ideally if Coaching Boys Into Men were to be implemented into the Sitka School District we’d see it at Sitka High School, maybe even Blatchley. And it works with male athletic organizations, by providing them with a training session, or a seminar, that the coach leads, and they talk about issues of domestic abuse, relationship violence, sexual violence — how to deal with those situations.
KCAW – How did the idea get started in student government?
Fulton – I had heard about the program before. It’s been implemented in Juneau with a tremendous amount of success. But the idea was formally addressed to us by the SAFV Shelter. They had wanted to see it implemented in the Sitka School District, but they needed a little bit more weight behind their campaign, and they wanted the student council to support them in this project.
KCAW – Are there behaviors among boys that are of concern to the council?
Fulton – In my high school career I’ve certainly seen it, and I’m sure others have too.

And it’s not just behaviors between genders that disturb student government. Sophomore council representative Julia Middleton asked the board to restore “Challenge Day,” when students confront iniquities across the social spectrum: gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, and family economics.

We have a huge problem in our school with the way kids treat each other. Challenge Day is normally spread out over a couple of days. It’s a seminar or clinic where they have exercises with the kids, and you get to see people who are having issues similar to your own. And you get to see the same people you see every day in a different light. And you relate more to them.

There hasn’t been a Challenge Day in Sitka High since this year’s seniors were freshmen. Council members who experienced it told the board that the climate in the school changed almost overnight.

Middleton admitted that the program was expensive — about $3,000 — but she hoped that the district would set up another Challenge Day as early as the beginning of next school year.

Sitka School Board clerk Tim Fulton, responding for the board, said he thought it was important that every student experience Challenge Day at least once in his or her high school career. He didn’t know where the funding would come for the event next year, but “maybe that’s where we can work together on fundraising.”

The board also responded favorably to Coaching Boys Into Men. Superintendent Mary Wegner said that there were grants and other supports in place that could help make it a reality.