By Miguel Sanchez-Rutledge, For The Emerald
Students at South Eugene High School walked out of their classes on Friday in protest of the lack of action taken by the administration in handling allegations of sexual assault by another student. Hundreds of students marched along West 19th Avenue and by the Amazon bike path. The few hundred students chanted and held signs that read, “End rape culture,” and “Protect our students.”
The protest was organized by Mia Dillon, a sophomore at SEHS. She called for the youth of Eugene to take action because of the inaction of the administration.

“The goal of this protest is to bring attention to the sexual violence in our community and the way victims have been disregarded,” Dillon said. “We also want to bring attention to the rape culture that is rampant in the world today. There is a system in place in society that makes survivors of sexual violence (and) harassment feel small, a system that we believe the South Eugene High School administration is contributing to. We are young people who want a better future. A safe future. A future where sexual misconduct is not tolerated or ignored. Action has not been taken by the adults of the administration, so action has been taken by the youth of Eugene.”
In an email released to parents and students the night before the protest was set to happen, Andy Dey, Principal of SEHS, denounced the protest and highlighted the progress the school has made with handling sexual assault.
“Part of our efforts,” Dey said,“have also included talk-back sessions following theater performances containing themes touching on sexual assault, increased access to on-site community partners that provide support for victims of sexual assault and training for faculty / staff to help respond to student concerns regarding unhealthy relationships. Finally, we have added staff who are to directly support an ongoing school-wide narrative about healthy communities and healthy relationships.”
The ending of the statement issued a warning for any students planning on skipping class.
“As for the planned walk-out tomorrow,” Dey said, “please know it is not a school sanctioned event and as such we will not be able to excuse absences from class for that reason. We will have campus security staff, our school resource officer and administration on site, as always, but the best way to ensure safe operation of the school is for students to be in class. Thank you for understanding in the event your student is marked as absent for that reason.”
A protest comes after a student at SEHS is accused of raping and sexually assaulting multiple students and students no longer feel safe, according to Jesse Pearce, a junior at SEHS, who took part in the protest.

“I am here because of the sexual assault epidemic that has been going on at this school,” Pearce said. “People have been largely silent, including the administration. The first time that they actually acknowledged it [sexual assault allegations] was happening was because of this demonstration being planned that they got wind of it and sent out an email. That was the first email they ever sent out about this problem.”
School officials and police were on scene to keep watch over the unofficial march and to make sure students didn’t move the protest inside, where classes were still in session.
The investigation into the incidents is being conducted by the Eugene Police Department and is still ongoing. No details into the incidents have been released to the public.
“It’s not a safe learning environment for students,” Pearce said. “We’re forcing the administration to talk about it. We’re forcing a conversation to happen.”
Miguel Sanchez-Rutledge is a senior at the University of Oregon. You can find his website here.

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Mia Dillon, A sophmore at SEHS, organized the protest and presented a statement she had written in regards to the sexual assault allegations.