High school students talk gender violence in Paramus @melanieanzidei | Affirmative Consent / Stopping Campus Sexual Assault.

NorthJersey.com
2.4.17 | Melanie Anzidei

PARAMUS — More than 60 students from several Bergen County high schools came together Friday for a full-day Youth Summit that taught them about gender violence and reinforced ways to prevent it in their communities.

The summit, organized by the Teen Leadership Council, a youth program under the Bergen Family Center, was held at Bergen Community College in Paramus.

According to student organizers, this year’s summit was much more intimate than those in past years, and for the first time zeroed in on just one social injustice – gender violence.

Noa Slotky, 17, a senior at Northern Valley High School in Demarest and a Closter resident, said she has been on the council for about five years and is one of its co-founders. With this being her final year, she said she would like to see the group’s work carry forward.

“It’s important to educate people and to make a difference,” she said. “Even if only one person leaves here affected by this, that’s good enough.”

Laura Koszer, 17, a senior at Bergen County Technical Schools and a Fort Lee resident, is also a member of the council. She said she, like many other girls her age, could relate to the summit’s theme. “I felt the most threatened by gender-based violence,” she said. “Like it’s something that could happen to me.”

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