LinC Day Program Opens the Door to Vital Conversations

The Spring Term’s LinC Day was held Thursday, April 21, and focused on the student-selected topics of consent, healthy relationships and sexual assault awareness. Given the sensitive nature of the topic, space was provided for those who did not wish to engage in the program.

The day began at 9 a.m. in Chapel with remarks from Jamie Forbes, a survivor of sexual assault and founder of Learning Courage, a nonprofit organization that works with K-12 independent schools to reduce incidents, improve responses and support healing from sexual misconduct and abuse. Forbes spoke about how the privileges he enjoyed at a private high school did not protect him from an abusive teacher; how a friend who advocated and supported him made all the difference then and in the decades that followed; and how he eventually decided to speak up and participate in investigations that resulted in a legal journey that continues. The thought of his own young daughters being victimized and having to live with the aftermath, he said, was the tipping point in his decision to take legal action, and going public has been a critical part of his healing.

In planning the day, LinC leaders knew there would be some in the community who had experienced harm or would find the content difficult for other reasons, and according to Associate Dean of Students Rob Arndt, they were conscious of bringing the right conversation to the community.

“The LinC leaders had been talking about addressing these topics since our earliest meetings in the fall, and it took until now because they wanted to be sure to do it right and in a thoughtful, intentional manner,” says Arndt. “This day is a step in continuing work that is needed in every community. The students took on a huge task and rose to the challenge.” 

The School community reconvened in Memorial Hall for a morning presentation by Don McPherson, a former NFL and Canadian Football League quarterback and member of the College Football Hall of Fame who has been working, writing and speaking on the topic of healthy sexuality for 28 years. The author of a 2019 book, “You Throw Like a Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity,” McPherson told the students that sexual violence is everyone’s problem and that they are the solution. It is in silence, he said, that problems are passed from generation to generation, noting that our society is conditioned not to talk about sexual violence or gun violence and that for too long, children have watched adults not do enough about the issues that harm them. Break the silence, McPherson urged students, and find ways to get comfortable having the conversation before the problems are passed on again. Love and hear each other, he implored, and be courageous in the truth of the issues we’re dealing with.

 

“Make today’s program not about today, but about today forward,” he concluded.

 

After McPherson’s presentation, students rotated through stations by form that included an information session, self-defense training and community building. The day’s programming, which followed a wiffle ball tournament on the evening of April 20 that raised more than $1,600 to support The Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire, ended with a second Chapel and closing remarks from Forbes.

Click to see the wiffle ball tournament photo gallery.