Diversity Club’s first annual Denim Day took place on Wednesday, April 28 as part of a national event spreading awareness of sexual harassment and assault.  

The event consisted of students wearing any amount of denim that they felt comfortable and telling others about their reason for wearing denim.

Senior Eliza Ellery thinks that awareness of the topic of sexual assault and harassment awareness is especially important given statistics that have been recently released about the topic. According to a NPR survey, over 75 percent of women have been a victim of verbal sexual harassment and over 50 percent of women have been a victim of unwelcome sexual touching.

Ellery said that she participated in the day to help raise awareness of some of the issues surrounding these statistics.

“I participated in denim day because I think it’s important to spread awareness about issues that are prevalent in our society,” Ellery said.

Sophomore Gaelle Dalmacy was part of the team on Diversity Club that planned Denim Day. She said it originated after an unjust result of an Italian court case.

“Denim day was (originally) created to stand in solidarity with victims and raise awareness about sexual assault/harrasment after a court in Italy dismissed a rape case,” Dalmacy said. “The court stated that the victim couldn’t have been raped because she was wearing denim shorts and was asking for it. It came (t0) North after a member of the Diversity club suggested (we implement it here).”

Math teacher Julie Pappas was one of the many teachers that participated in Denim Day. She said that although she thinks the day was overshadowed by the teacher sick-out, she saw a lot of people wearing denim and thinks that awareness of the issues behind it were talked about.

“I saw a lot more teachers than usual wearing denim,” Pappas said. “I also heard students talking about it while they were still here.”