Cleveland.com Shines Light on ROX Girls

Olmsted Falls High School girls speak about empowerment at national conference

Published: November 1, 2023 on Cleveland.com

Olmsted Falls City School District’s ROX teenagers recently spoke at the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators (NAPSA) conference in Cleveland. Courtesy of Olmsted Falls City School

By John Benson, special to cleveland.com

OLMSTED TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The summer of Barbie taught us the benefits of female empowerment as it relates to mental health and self-esteem.

Those are the same themes the Olmsted Falls City School District has been championing in its involvement with the national ROX (Ruling Our Experiences) program.

For the past four years, the evidence-based empowerment group has involved 110 girls in grades 4-12 at Olmsted Falls Intermediate School and Olmsted Falls Middle School.

“It’s very focused on empowering girls to feel confidence through learning how to have healthy friendships, learning how to communicate in a healthy way, being assertive and standing up for themselves in all different places in life -- friendships and on social media,” said Olmsted Falls Middle School counselor Sara Meyers, who is a ROX facilitator.

“Some of the outcomes data from our programming shows that girls feel better about being at school in general. They feel more connected to their friends, more confident in standing up for themselves and speaking their minds,” she said.

The innovative programming also has an academic component championing STEM career options, which stereotypically have been male-based.

Olmsted Falls City Schools Director of Student Services Shannon Goss noted that the ROX effort has been so successful that the district is currently training three more staff members.

The district’s ROX girls were asked earlier this month to speak about their experiences at the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators (NAPSA) conference in Cleveland.

Olmsted Falls City School District’s ROX teenagers recently spoke at the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators (NAPSA) conference held in Cleveland. Courtesy of Olmsted Falls City School

The following student statements epitomize the positive impact ROX programming has related to the often-difficult transition from middle school to high school:

“ROX helped me gain a huge level of my confidence,” Olmsted Falls High School freshman Grace Andler said. “Before I had this experience, I was afraid to talk out, afraid to be assertive.

“I didn’t know what to say or how to react in certain situations. ROX changed that. I now know what to do in these situations and how to -- politely -- get what I want and deserve.”

Bulldog junior Marin Head echoed the same sentiment, noting that she discovered that girlhood is not a competition.

“We’re in a world where girls are taught to be competitive with each other,” she said. “ROX broke that idea for me, because I learned that we’re all on an equal playing field.

“Girls do not need to push each other down for the betterment of themselves; we need to work together as a team to better ourselves.”

Perhaps the biggest takeaway and impact on going to school in the 21st century came from junior Caelan Crist.

“One of the ROX discussions that has always stuck with me and has significantly helped my confidence on a day-to-day basis was our lesson on how social media is fake,” she said.

“We went through all sorts of pictures and videos of how models get body shamed and all their pictures are edited.

“It really helped me, because now when I’m feeling really bad I remind myself all the time that I don’t need to change my body in order to be beautiful. I don’t need to change anything about myself to be considered beautiful, because I already am beautiful.”

As a parent of two boys and a girl, Superintendent Jim Lloyd said he’s witnessed the difficulties of being a teenager.

That’s why he’s a huge proponent of the ROX program.

“It’s tough to be a girl,” he said. “All of the things that they have to deal with as far as social media and imaging and what they’re supposed to look like and sound like.

“If you’re a parent raising a daughter, you’d be a fool not to want your child to be involved with something like (ROX).”

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