Will Leaked Group Chats Spark Lasting Change?

March 17, 2021: This article does not appear in full and is under evaluation for factual errors.

“It’s time to dig in and say, ‘who are we as teachers, what are our students saying, and let’s listen to them and make real change.’”

It was an August afternoon when Justin Gilken spoke over Zoom from his dining room table. Gilken, dean of high school students at Masterman, is on the forefront of responding to a series of leaked Instagram group chats and instigating larger changes in Masterman. The Instagram group chats, which district officials became aware of in mid-June, sent shockwaves through the greater Philadelphia public school community. The leaked messages were rife with racist and transphobic slurs. Misogynistic jokes peppered the conversations. There was back and forth banter about beating women, raping women, and reporting assault.

Screenshots came from two group chats involving boys from Julia R. Masterman High School, Central High School, and Science Leadership Academy. Besides the similar content, the other commonality the two group chats shared is the fact that the majority of teens involved, even those at other high schools, attended Julia R. Masterman Middle School. The first screenshots that surfaced were from a group chat composed of thirteen boys from the class of 2023, current high school sophomores. Days later, screenshots from a second group chat of eleven boys in the class of 2022, current high school juniors, were leaked.

While students attempted to create change and deliver justice virtually, adults throughout the district began the long and tedious task of addressing the students’ actions. Gilken explained, “By the time of Lisel's emails, we knew we were in a very serious situation, and knew we had reached out to the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities. She had a lot of information, a lot of context. Anytime something like this is reported, we’re trying to get enough feedback from students so we know what’s actually happening.” Mr. Gilken went on to explain that the actions of the students would fall under two categories. “The initial offense would be inappropriate use of an electronic device… What’s helpful here is that when an aggression of this matter happens [messages exchanged on an electronic device], there is hard evidence. It’s black and white, it’s cut and dry. [The next offence is decided when] we can take a look at it and say, is it bullying, is it harassment, or if it disrupted the climate of a class or a whole school in a negative way.’’The cases were reviewed by the district’s Office of Student’s Rights and Responsibilities, a team of legal experts and school administrators, which gave a series of recommendations to the various schools that the boys attended. “Ultimately what happens is a school-based decision with the guidance of the district,” said Mr. Gilken. “Some of the individuals' cases have been closed, and for others, it's still open. It is a little harder because of the circumstance [COVID-19 and summer break], there are documents that need to be signed, and that has drawn out the process, but it is happening. Because of FERPA [The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] that’s all I can say.”

According to the School District of Philadelphia’s 2019-2020 Student Code of Conduct Handbook’s Behavior Matrix, disciplinary actions for this situation can range from “In-school Interventions [including in-school suspension]” to “Alternative Education Assignment with Expulsion Referral.” When asked about disciplinary measures for students involved in the group chats in mid October, Mr. Gilken elaborated, “Each of the individuals and their parents have been notified of their involvement and the students are currently in the consequences process which includes both educational and disciplinary outcomes.”

The group chats were leaked to the public while the Masterman community was in the midst of confronting years of concerns and allegations voiced by students about the school’s racist climate. Black at Masterman, an Instagram page, contained posts where students and alumni anonymously shared stories of racism at Masterman. Masterman Alumni for Change, which Masterman's African American Cultural Committee fully endorses, proposed a charter addressing how to improve Masterman’s climate. Little of the charter was implemented. Over the summer, there were student-led, optional Race Forums. Additionaly, there is a proposed reporting policy. This policy, created by Masterman math department head Mrs. Siu and the United Minority Council (a group founded last winter made up of Masterman’s affinity groups) is set to be implemented later this year. It is intended to make reporting incidents concerning racism, homophobia, and misogyny easier for students.

The group chats also led to conversations and action in regard to the misogynistic culture and lack of comprehensive sex education at Masterman. Nora Stockovaz (12-4), Masterman High School’s student body president and one of the students involved in creating curriculmn change said, “In the past, I feel as though the issue of sexual harassment has not been addressed in the slightest. This is largely due to a culture of keeping this activity hidden as it is associated with a lot of shame and difficult feelings as a young person. Our sexual education is also sorely lacking any emotional or mental discussion about sex, rape, or harrasment.” Health teachers explained that due to budget cuts, teachers get less time to discuss these paramount topics, as there are fewer health and gym teachers. This issue is compounded by the fact that Masterman health teachers are supplied with textbooks that do not line up with what the Philadelphia School District recommends teaching. The 2005 Glencoe textbook in circulation at Masterman offers an abstinence pledge and has little information on sexual harassment and no information on gender identity, consent, and contraception. However, city guidelines now advocate teaching comprehensive sexual education that covers these topics. This leaves health teachers in a difficult situation in regards to curriculum. Health teacher Mrs. Jones was reported to be working on a revamped curriculum with students. She stated, "As far as health class concerns, the latest curriculum that the district introduced this year addresses all of these issues. They trained the entire district in the 3 R’s (Rights, Respect, & Responsibilities) curriculum which was introduced to Masterman 10th grade health last year. We utilized the 3 R’s and Planned Parenthood to teach more comprehensive lessons. The new curriculum provides a scripted lesson plan and prompts class discussion on sensitive topics. I can’t speak about the curriculum prior to last year as I was at a different school but I believe they were doing their best with the materials they had. As a department, we are striving to stay up to date with current cultural content. This year we will be implementing an age-appropriate 3R’s curriculum. We will address different aspects of sexual education for each grade. I also believe that it is difficult to address all the lessons in the curriculum with only seeing the students once a week. You could spend the entire year just teaching the curriculum and miss out on other health topics."

With student input, the school has taken a new route to focus on discussions regarding comprehensive sex education outside of the health classroom. Mr. Gilken mentioned the possibility of bringing in speakers from the Mazzoni center, which focuses on LGBTQ health and wellbeing. He is also working to incorporate discussions about sexual harassment into classrooms taught by non-health teachers through short stories and class discussions. Peer Counseling plans to continue teaching lessons on consent to seventh and eighth graders, which were implemented last year with the help of Planned Parenthood. The offending group chats spurred students and administration to revise the dress code, as well as push to bring student-led workshops to middle school classrooms regarding comprehensive sexual education. These are currently being planned. Lauryn Ciardullo (11-1), a member of Masterman’s gender-sexuality alliance (Allies) and who is also part of the group working on dress code reform, explained that she felt that the administration has not done a just job of including students in this conversation. She explained that the administration had reached out to students in the United Minority Council to review the dress code and comprehensive sexual education plan. There were emails and virtual meetings between students and staff over the summer. However, according to Ciardullo, the administration's communication dropped off in September.

The repercussions of the group chats are ongoing. The group chats did not result in expulsion for students attending Masterman. Save for one student who was expelled from Central regarding allegations of inappropriate conduct separate from the group chat, all other students in the chat still attend their respective high school. Peers and teachers interact with them virtually five days a week. Lisel Ndrecka argued that the best way for students involved in the group chats to show they understand the impact of their actions and demonstrate growth is through future actions. Ciardullo suggested that the students in the group chats reach out to groups in the United Minority Council to better understand the impact of the leaked messages. Throughout the process of implementing changes at Masterman, the group chat messages and the climate they illuminated continue to weigh on students and staff. Mr. Gilken explained that while he felt like he understood the level of harassment that happens at school, the group chats came as a surprise. “Some of this exists right under our noses but we’re not necessarily aware of it,” he explained. Ciardullo and Triona Lawrence (11-2), co-presidents of Allies and members of the United Minority Council, said that the Masterman students involved in the offending group chats had made offensive jokes and used slurs aloud in class since middle school and continued to do so in high school. The students were rarely corrected by staff or students. For Ciardullo and Lawrence, the leaked group chats did not come as a surprise. This opinion was shared by every student consulted for this article. Lawrence acknowledged past discussions facilitated by guidance counselors and health teachers surrounding bullying, slurs, and social media, but cited that she felt these messages did not get across to the students who needed to hear them. This August, screenshots from a racist group chat made up of Masterman students circulated Instagram, in which students debated whether Jacob Blake deserved to be shot. For some, this confirmed the fear that the group chats leaked in June were just two of many unleaked group chats containing hateful messages.

As of today, Masterman students involved in the group chats leaked in June have not issued apologies outside of social media, for some of them, this was limited to reposting an identical written apology on Instagram in July. Because of FERPA, the student body not involved in the chat are in the dark surrounding the education and disciplinary actions surrounding the group chats. Of the students involved in creating reforms at Masterman, many felt wary of the school’s promises and actions. In some cases, the administration has not yet met the requests of students. Only time will tell if the actions taken to shift Masterman’s culture will have a real impact.