The Piedmont Protectors—an Instagram account created by a Bay Area high school student—is sharing stories of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment in their community.
The Future is Ms. is an ongoing series of news reports by young feminists. This series is made possible by a grant from SayItForward.org in support of teen journalists and the series editor, Katina Paron.
Her hands quivered as she tapped the colorful app on her iPhone. In the top corner above the vacation photos of her friends, there were 23 new messages on the new Instagram account she set up. A shiver ran up her spine as she clicked. Those messages were proof that sexual harm was pervasive in her small town.
When Sarah created the Piedmont Protectors Instagram account in July 2020, the Bay Area high school student wanted a platform for students to share their stories of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment in their community. She sought inspiration from several other high schools’ “protector” accounts that had appeared over that summer. Like the other account administrators interviewed for this story, Sarah is going by her middle name due to legal threats from parents as a response to Piedmont Protectors posts.
Though Piedmont High School only has 840 students, the account gained over 1,500 within the first week. After three days of being live, there were already over 90 posts anonymously reporting and documenting sexual assault, harassment and rape in the Piedmont Unified School District student community.
“They just kept coming and it was a lot,” Jane, an account administrator, said. “It was actually pretty emotionally taxing having to read all these things and absorb all this information and hold up all these people’s hurt.”
A few days after the first post, the school’s principal, Adam Littlefield, emailed parents and students acknowledging the account and expressing concern. He said the staff and the local police department were available for support and offered resources to “report a concern.”
Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers said the number of sexual assault reports in the area have not increased since the Piedmont Protectors account launched.
After the account went public, the reaction from students was swift. Senior Kaeli Huh created an on-campus club called Piedmont for Consent, or P4C, that organized consent workshops, a corresponding parent night, and a survivor support and allies group.
California high schools must teach “integrated, comprehensive, accurate and inclusive comprehensive sexual health education,” but nowhere in the California Healthy Youth Act is the issue of consent addressed.
Last June, when a town hall was organized to discuss consent in Piedmont schools, senior and P4C member Abby Drake said she was upset by the fact that it took a year for school leaders to act on what Piedmont Protectors account revealed.
The administrators verbally agreed to prioritize student consent education and initiatives but haven’t committed to making adjustments to the Speak Up form— a form for students that anonymously allows students to report a concern or incident to PUSD administrators—to make it focused on consent and sexual assault.
“I want [students] to know we see those stories and they shouldn’t give up on adults being able to support them,” Littlefield said.
There have been some changes in the school community though. After the town hall, some of the boys at Piedmont saw they needed to examine their own toxic masculinity through a podcast they called “Trash Takes.”
One “Trash Takes” host, Wesley Jong, said his and many of his male peers’ initial reaction to the Piedmont Protectors account was shock.
“As male-identifying students, all of the stories on there were things we’ve never heard,” he said. “It was like an unearthing moment.”
Huh said for some students, the Piedmont Protectors account has made a big impact on how teens view each other. “It has definitely changed how you see some people and how you interact with those people,” she said.
Piedmont for Consent will continue to expand during this school year. Consent education workshops have been scheduled and the club signed up over 40 students on Club Day. As for “Trash Takes,” Jiang said they will release a season two, inviting new guests, and continuing to develop these conversations concerning consent at Piedmont High School.
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