In the Classroom

i look out at those faces only a few years removed oh, the things i wish i could tell them in the hopes it might travel through time and space

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i stay up grading their papers i walk the tightrope i try to be their guide i tell them this is a place where it’s safe for them to fall i want to protect them the truth is, they are not safe here just like i wasn’t safe there

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as i look out at those bored faces i wonder how many of them might have hung those signs or laughed at our pain i wonder how many of these young women are having to come here every Monday morning and sit in class next to someone who laughs at the pain we, and only we, all silently understand

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how many of you young men hung those signs? laughed at them? walked past and kept your head down? have laughed in the locker room? have been told “no” and chosen to hear “pour me another drink?”

By: Aurora Jane Wells

or “try harder?” or dismissed it as an illusion because objects can’t speak?

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how many of you have to come here and sit in class next to he who laid claim to your body like it wasn’t yours? how many of you are avoiding eye contact because of that time when she was just overreacting? because of that misunderstanding? because of that time when she shouldn’t have been walking home wearing that? because of that time when she never said no? because of that time where it didn’t happen to him because it doesn’t happen to men, right?

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blue lights are not enough enough lighting it up, time to burn it to the ground the world will never have a hope until the number of us who are furious so furious they can no longer lower their heads who are ready to say we won’t take it anymore who are ready to say knock it off, bro is 4 in 4

POSITIONALITY: This poem discusses the epidemic of misogyny, sexual violence, and gender-based violence at Queen's and the University's frustrating lack of an effective response to it, from the perspective of a teching assistant. Aurora (not her real name) is a teaching assistant who worries about her students' safety and wishes she could do more to protect them. She heavily implies that she was subjected to a sexual assault in her undergrad and when she looks at her students, especially the women, she cannot help but wonder how many have had or will have the same experience. She calls on men, the University administration, and the community at large to do more about misogyny and