Students are ‘Ruling Their Experiences’ through the ROX program at schools across the Parma City School District.
ROX, which stands for Ruling Our Experiences, is a program that focuses on building confidence in girls while empowering them to control their relationships, experiences, decisions, and futures.
According to the ROX website, the program “utilizes research and evidence-based programming to simultaneously impact girls, educate and support the adult influencers in girls' lives, and improve the societal conditions that have the potential to negatively impact girls.”
Staff members at both our middle schools and high schools are ROX trained and certified. There are programs in our six secondary buildings to help encourage and inspire adolescent and teen girls by having age-appropriate discussions and activities.
Some of the topics covered include team building, healthy communication, dealing with girl drama/bullying, healthy relationships, navigating social media, body image, support systems, sexual harassment, safety and violence prevention, stress and coping, academic and career development, and leadership.
Recently, students from our three high schools came together to learn self-defense techniques as well as talk about how to support each other and warning signs of abuse.
“We wanted this to be an empowering day of them learning verbal and physical self-defense while supporting each other,” described Dawn Tabaj, who is a ROX Facilitator and Guidance Counselor at Valley Forge High School. “We also included in our lesson guest speakers who talked about female leadership, empowerment, impacting others, and being their best self. Assistant Superintendent Tiffany Stropko, Tanya Czack, and Steve Lindh from the Parma Heights Police Department were our guest speakers and did an amazing job at motivating and empowering our students.”
Students participate in hands-on activities like how to defend themselves if they are in fear of their lives, what to do if they are in a dangerous situation, how to be more aware of their surroundings, and have meaningful discussions about boundaries.
“I hope that the girls are empowered to know that they can be anything they dream of and that they can be leaders within our school community and the world,” Tabaj expressed. “I also hope that they feel confident in their verbal and self-defense skills that we demonstrated and practiced should they ever need to use them. My wish is that the girls feel empowered to have a voice and stand up for themselves while believing in themselves and their dreams.”
ROX has been in our schools for a few years, but this year, the high schools wanted to join forces for students to meet each other and form a collaborative, supporting group.
“I think it was really cool for all the ROX girls to be able to meet from each of the high schools and collaborate together,” Tabaj shared. “Our goal is that they share this knowledge with other females and are role models within our buildings while feeling empowered to stand up for themselves.”
Additionally, the programs wanted to unify the school and community and show how important it is to have these opportunities for students.
“I think it is extremely important to have a support group for our girls within each building," she added. “Navigating the teenage years can be very difficult. Through our lessons, we help girls learn their worth, value themselves, gain self-confidence, and learn to have a voice. Through the group, the girls can support each other and form lasting healthy friendships.”
Our high schools continue to support our students in a variety of ways, not just through the ROX programs.
“We offer five support groups at the high school level: Rox-Girls Leadership, Social Skills Management, Boys Leadership, Circle of Change/Wellness, and Anxiety Support,” Tabaj described. “Each counselor facilitates one of these groups. We also have the Cornerstone of Hope at Valley Forge co-facilitating a Grief Group with our Home Liaison. You B You is another group at Valley Forge that meets each week on Mondays after school to support our LGBTQ+ community and is open to ALL students to empower them to feel comfortable and confident about who they are. Each school runs a Hope Squad for suicide prevention. Hope Squad is a school-based peer-to-peer, suicide prevention program for students. Hope Squad members are students nominated by peers as trustworthy classmates and trained to identify at-risk students, provide friendship and seek help from an adult. Lastly, students who have been given in-school suspension for the day participate in a Circle of Change Discussion facilitated by our home liaison and our in-school suspension monitor. Students discuss how they can make better choices. Normandy and Parma High also have extra groups that support the needs of our students.”