Perkiomen Valley High School takes on a 'Challenge'

Tears were shed, hugs were given and life experiences were shared as students and staff worked to bridge social divides during their first-ever Challenge Day, Monday. Students from various grades and volunteers from the faculty, administrators and staff gathered in the school's gymnasium for the school-day-long event.

The challenge was to “have fun and get serious,” program leaders Jon Gordon and Sean Flikke told participants. Indeed, activities ranged from dancing to games to sitting down for honest dialogue.

Founded by husband and wife Yvonne and Rich Dutra in 1987, the Challenge Day Program, according to the website, “provides teens and adults with tools to tear down the walls of separation, and inspires participants to live, study, and work in an encouraging environment of acceptance, love, and respect.” It has garnered even more attention thanks to the MTV series, “If You Really Knew Me,” which chronicles Challenge Day events at different schools.

PVHS’ Challenge Day funding was provided by a Pottstown Wellness grant, Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation grant and a Safe Schools grant.

Before the day got under way, Gordon and Flikke briefed the adults on working to keep up the energy level, and how to respond to certain situations.

“Our challenge to you today is to treat these young ones as your own sons and daughters,” Flikke said.

Acknowledging that teachers are trained not to be physical with students, Flikke and Gordon asked the adults to offer a hug or a hand on the shoulder to emotional or distraught teens. Both men emphasized, however, that the student should first verbally accept the offer, and that no one should go beyond a personal comfort level.

 When it was time for the students to join them, teachers and staffers lined up on either side of some gym doors, cheering their arrival as dance music blasted over the sound system. Some teens walked down the line enthusiastically, accepting high fives from the adults, while other students smiled shyly at the attention.

Challenge Day was a first step in creating change in the school’s social culture, and the students were encouraged to realize they were they key to achieving that.

“You have the power to make things different,” Flikke said. “We think we have to settle (for the status quo). What would the school of your dreams look like?”

“If you want to be treated with kindness, be kinder,” Gordon told the teens. “If you want respect, be respectful.”

To make things different, people have to change their habits and step outside of their comfort zones, Gordon said. “It’s strange, awkward and uncomfortable at first,” he said.

Students were asked to complete the phrase, “If today was the best day….” Responses included the following:

“I’d liked to be treated will and as an individual—not like one of the crowd.”

“With respect as a person and a friend.”

“I’d be treated like I actually matter.”

To shake up any separation, Flikke and Gordon led the participants in the “Different Game.” Everyone was to find a person—one who was not already a friend—with a different hair color and stand back-to-back with that person, linking arms. The pairs then had to dance to the music playing; this happened again with partners of different heights.

 Apart from activities at the beginning and end of the day, Challenge Day’s proceedings were private. Black paper was taped over the glass on the auditorium doors, and signs warned away non-participants. Like commercials for Las Vegas, Sean and Jon reminded participants that what happened and what was said in the room stays in the room. Participants were told the only exceptions were if a student said he or she is being hurt, hurting him/herself or is hurting someone else or thinking about hurting someone else.

As the day wrapped up, the group had come together. People were beaming, hugging and slightly teary. Students expressed the effect the program had on them, and hope that they could instill change in the school.

Taylor McLaughlin, 10^th grade, said, “I’m going to do the best that I can to take the values I’ve learned here and implement them in my school. (To achieve ultimate success) It’s going to take a lot of people to help.”

“I hope that every school in America could adopt something like this. Our school stresses that it’s so important not to bully people. (However) until people understand what everyone else is going through, and until they all connect with each other, there’s still going to be bullying. I really feel like this would be a great thing to help people connect.”

When asked if having to open up in front of peers was intimidating, 11^th grader Ezra Rancio replied, “To tell you the truth, it was kind of. But I’m kind of used to it, because I used to have issues, being a foster kid since I was 5, moving from home to home. I kind of thought it was just another way to make me talk, but I found it was different. I found out about different people’s experiences, and that I’m not the only one with a messed-up life. I can’t just let it control what my future’s going to be.”

“I would recommend this 100 percent,” he said about the program. “I wish that every single kid in this school could have been there today, because they would have felt it to be very helpful, and it probably would stop all bullying in this school.”