Abigail Sulfridge tells her Cole Valley story

Topics include being a recent student in Cole Valley (Class of 2020), bullying, mental illness, and closed-mindedness

I published a blog post reflecting on my Cole Valley experience and why I have such negative feelings about it. Since then, a support group has started, there’s a dedicated website, a joint statement has been published, and we delivered it to Cole Valley in an unofficial meeting. We’re trying to discuss our ideas with the administration (example, example), but they’re ignoring us.

Abigail was a current student at Cole Valley until 5 days ago (Class of 2020). She’s leaving Cole Valley for her senior year. She wanted to tell her story for the benefit of anyone that wants to listen.

This is the uncut conversation. Below are hyperlinks to highlights if you don’t want to watch it in full.

• Context of the Cole Valley Speaks movement (0:00)
• Abigail’s reactions to this movement (4:33)
• As a Cole Valley student, Abigail saw the original blog post, emailed me, joined the support group, and eventually she and her parents got a talking to from Cole Valley (5:45)
• Some teachers are afraid they’ll lose their jobs because Cole Valley Speaks will lead to shutting the school down (12:50)
• Cole Valley people don’t think the stories are true. (13:45)
• Most students didn’t know about Cole Valley Speaks until we a small group of us went to Cole Valley for lunch. Almost all are opposed. (14:25)
• Abigail was bullied a lot in elementary school. There wasn’t discipline, just prayer. (20:56)
• Abigail got a talking to from the school counselor about being too “clingy” with her friend in junior high (23:05)
• In high school, Abigail experienced sexual harassment, and people thought she provoked it (25:03)
• Abigail dealt with mental illness in high school, and went to a hospital at one point. She was made fun of a lot for it. (29:40)
• How mental health topics are currently taught at Cole Valley (32:31)
• Abigail’s feelings about the school counselor (37:36)
• What changes Abigail would like to see at Cole Valley (43:50)
• Abigail’s message to Cole Valley administration — be kind to the students (46:41)
• Abigail’s message to prospective parents — make sure you know what’s going on (47:35)
• Abigail’s message to current students -miss you! (46:25)