The Atrocious "Grady Bracket"

The “Grady Bracket” is a list of rankings, similar to March Madness, that a group of teenage boys decided to do during their spring break. In this list, they listed many girls’ names who went to Grady (now Midtown High), and categorized them inappropriately on social media sites (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.) the boys would privately dm girls asking for inappropriate pictures, and if they abided, they’d be ranked higher, if they didn’t, they’d be ranked lower. But that wasn’t all beneath the surface.

One student said, “It’s not even about the bracket anymore, it’s more about the sexual misconduct going on at Grady.”

The “Grady Bracket” was the shovel and it hit a gold mine. There are many students who feel that there is an issue with sexual misconduct at Midtown high. There was a meeting held where victims of “the bracket” including those not involved were joined by counselors, teachers, and administrators. The meeting was supposed to allow students to voice their opinions and concerns. There was someone who represented a non-profit group that tries to help victims cope with sexual harassment. He spent most of his time defining what sexual harassment is and how important it is to speak up about sexual misconduct. His speech proved to be very informative although sadly he was the only person who spoke. He dominated the discussion. After the meeting, I asked a couple of students how they felt about it.

Student 1: “We didn’t even get to voice our opinions, I didn’t like that. And, not everyone can be trusted.”

Student 2: Another said: “Some people think we’re making a big deal of nothing but we’re not!”

Student 3: “It’s not fair.” “They just get a slap on the wrist, and no one is doing anything about it!”

Many students came in hopes of finding out what was going to be done to solve the problem of sexual harassment at Midtown High. Sadly, many seemed to have left feeling like nothing was really going to change.

Sexual harassment isn’t the only issue concerning many students. I recently had an email exchange with a tenth grader who expressed high anxiety from attending school. “The bracket wasn’t the beginning of my anxiety here. It was the fact that no matter how hard I tried [to embolden our school community] we (Midtown High) were always on the news or in a fight.” This student's opinion may not represent everyone but it does raise the point that there are things that can be fixed.

But Midtown high isn’t all chaotic. Most students love the feeling of running up the stairs to get to their favorite teacher’s class, or down to the cafe to grab a bite to eat. They have an award-winning journalism program, and many successful people have come out of Grady such as Adam Schlutz the head photographer for President Joe Biden. Despite all of these accomplishments, there’s still a major issue that needs to be addressed. Sexual harassment. Currently, many students just want to feel safe when they go to school. They do not want to have to worry about getting categorized, rated, or demoralized. Most just wanted to live in their own skin without judgment.

I can not begin to imagine what it feels like to be a victim of sexual harassment and I pray I never. What happened at Midtown High was terrible. The “Grady Bracket” was atrocious. The happenings serve as a reminder that our community needs to come together and take some action. What can we do as a community to stop this? Every household should have conversions condemning sexual harassment and encouraging all students to speak out against it when they are a victim or a witness of it. Hopefully, if we all can focus on this goal, we will not see another atrocious “Grady Bracket”.