Teen Face: Senior leaves lasting mark on school with anti-bullying campaign

Petaluma High School officials are praising the work of a high school senior who this year launched the school’s most ambitious anti-bullying campaign. Now, next to educational fixtures such as the periodic table of elements and roll-down world maps, classrooms are adorned with rainbow-colored stickers that read “Safe Space: This is an inclusive environment for all.”

Led by senior Micah Lesch, the effort to curb bullying on the campus has already reduced harmful comments overheard in hallways, classrooms and at school functions.

“There were a lot of slurs being said on campus, and people were feeling bullied and marginalized,” Lesch said.

As president of the high school’s Gay Straight Alliance club, Lesch, along with the organization’s roughly 50 active members, canvassed the school for a month last spring and recorded comments they considered harmful. Students tallied the slurs on note cards, then presented their data to school faculty.

A few months later, the Gay Straight Alliance had raised enough money to purchase 500 anti-bullying stickers, and school officials announced they’d feature Lesch’s work at Trojan Connections - the school’s monthly student-led educational workshop meeting.

“We spend 20 minutes every month devoted to an area of student interest or concern, and Micah ended up writing the whole lesson focused on campus safety and harassment issues,” said Connie Williams, the school’s librarian who worked with Lesch on the project. “What he’s done has set the stage for how the administration addresses issues related to campus safety in the future.”

Lesch said his idea for the survey was sparked, in part, because of the amount of negative comments he’d heard on campus directed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

“I was in shock, and a lot of others were in shock over the number of slurs we’d heard,” Lesch said. “We wanted to change that and create a safe and inclusive learning environment for all the students on campus.”

Petaluma High’s Principal David Stirrat said Lesch’s work for the Gay Straight Alliance has made a lasting change at the school. When Lesch got involved as a freshman, there were only three or four members, and today, 50 people participate in weekly meetings, according to school staff.

“Micah is one of those special people; he’s just got that special thing,” Stirrat said, noting that Lesch transformed a passion into new school policy. “That kind of attitude is a beacon for the rest of us - I’d call him a role model.”

Lesch, 17, also plays drums in the school’s marching band and drumline group. He hopes to be accepted to UC Berkeley next year, where he plans to major in political science. Lesch said he wants to eventually work in the area of social justice and civil rights.