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Special Education Administrator resigns
Students speak for and against building border wall
Sexual assault: It happens here too
‘Proof’ cast wins ensemble award
Gymnastics makes States for first time since 2012
news
opinion
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The Student Newspaper of Algonquin Regional High School
a&e
sports
79 Bartlett Street, Northborough, MA 01532
March 2019
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arhsharbinger.com
VOL. 31 NO. 4
Taking Control Psychological, physical abuse impacts students
MAGGIE DEL RE & ELISSA GORMAN Editors-in-Chief
o other students walking by, it just looked like a couple holding hands. What they didn’t see is that when senior Janette’s* (name changed to maintain anonymity) partner let go of her wrist, it was sore for minutes, hours or even days later because of how tightly he held on. Of the 60 percent of students who have been in a romantic relationship, 11 percent report being physically threatened or intimidated by an intimate partner, according to a Harbinger survey of 236 students from Feb. 1 to Feb. 27 through Google Forms. Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person by way of bodily contact. Out of 235 responses, 4 students reported being physically abused by a romantic partner, and 6 students were unsure if they had been physically abused by a romantic partner. Adjustment counselor Sarah McNulty worries that students who are physically abused by romantic partners may struggle with their selfesteem long after they are out of the unhealthy relationship. “I just feel like that emotional piece can sometimes be an even more long-lasting challenge to feel good about yourself,” McNulty said. “I worry that it sets you up for maybe a pattern [of falling into unhealthy relationships].” Students seeking help for domestic abuse can call REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Massachusetts at (800) 899-4000 at any time, any day and receive support, shelter and/or referrals for affordable or free counseling. Even for students who are not ready to end their relationship, REACH offers programs and supports to help students work through the ups and downs of navigating an abusive relationship.
Psychological Abuse Psychological abuse is characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. According to The Harbinger survey, 25 percent of students who have been in a romantic relationship feel they have endured psychological abuse; Janette is one of those students. “A lot of [psychological abuse] is manipulating you and guilt,” Janette said. “You’re like ‘Hey, this is making me uncomfortable’ or ‘I don’t like when you do this’ and they’ll turn it right back around and they’ll be like ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I would do that, I’m so sorry, I’m such a terrible person.’ They flip it so that you’re the one that ends up comforting them and then the whole problem is brushed under the rug.” According to McNulty, a big part of psychological abuse stems from control; a psychologically abusive person wants to control their partner. “It’s things that get said, put downs, telling someone they’re worthless, sort of that power play that starts to occur in an emotionally abusive relationships,” McNulty said. Janette’s former partner controlled what she was allowed to post online, what she could wear and who she could speak with. Janette said sometimes the psychological abuse escalated into forms of physical abuse. “I drift from side to side when I walk, and it really irritated [my former partner] for some reason,” Janette said. “We would be holding hands while we walked, and in order to keep me walking in a straight line to stop from bumping into him, he would squeeze my hand or hold my wrist so hard that it hurt. I can’t have people touch my wrists anymore because of that.”
‘ABUSE’ CONTINUED ON P. 18
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION CONNOR LAWLESS
School committee approves FY 2020 budget ELISSA GORMAN
and fiscally responsible,” Johnson said. “We’re all taxpayers, and [taxpayers] want to know that what we spend Editor-in-Chief our money on is well-purposed and goes in a direction The school committee approved the budget for the that supports growth opportunities for students and excellence in teaching and learning. That 2019-2020 fiscal year at their meeting balance is very challenging.” on Feb. 27 in the Algonquin library, Part of what made this year’s “[The goal of a prioritizing communication, curricubudget process especially difficult lum, student support services and budget] is to be was contractual increases according technology. to Johnson. Teachers’ salaries increase educationally The recommended budget is set each year a teacher remains at the at $23,775,448, which includes minisound and fiscally school and as a teacher becomes more mum local contributions from both educated. responsible.” Northborough and Southborough. “If there are 10 teachers [that get According to Superintendent CHRISTINE JOHNSON their Master’s degree] in one year, it Christine Johnson, the budget must SUPERINTENDENT can be as much as $50,000 on the budalso take into account student enget,” Johnson said. rollment, class sizes, instructional reTo account for these increases, sources, healthcare costs for staff and potential budget offsets were necessary. utilities necessary to operate the school. According to Johnson, Full Time Equivalency “[The goal of a budget] is to be educationally sound
(FTE) is “a way to define how many teachers you have in your building.” A teacher with a full teaching load, which is five courses, would be defined as a 1.0 FTE. For example, a 0.4 FTE reduction would mean that a teacher would have two less courses per semester. As of now, recommended offsets include a 1.0 FTE reduction in world language, a 0.8 FTE reduction in health and physical education, a 0.4 FTE reduction in fine and applied arts and a 1.0 FTE reduction in administration. “One of [the FTE reductions] is a new [part-time 0.6] hire and one of [the teachers] will be leaving the district anyway, so what that allowed us to do is to say ‘Okay, if we have to reduce staff, we’re not reducing staff that are currently here; we’re reducing the position,’” Johnson said. “So in health and physical education, it was a 0.8, which was not a full time teacher, and in art, we’re hiring a 0.6 instead of a 1.0, so that helped us reduce the operational budget.”
‘BUDGET’ CONTINUED ON P. 3