This story was selected for Best of SNO, School Newspapers Online.

As she walks down the halls she hears a deep voice hollering at her about her legs. Her heart begins to pound, feeling uneasy she starts to walk faster, trying to pull her skirt down.

“I was in my official FFA dress but I was not wearing my pantyhose because they had ripped,” freshman Abby Cox said. “When I walked, my skirt would rise up to about the middle of my thigh—sometimes higher. Before I could pull it down, some guy yelled ‘nice legs’ which made me very uncomfortable.”

Women everywhere are constantly being degraded as they walk down streets, hallways, shopping aisles—everywhere. Catcalling is when someone makes a sexual comment, whistle, or shout to a woman passing by. It has become a growing issue in today’s society.

“It’s a violation of a girl’s privacy, and serves as a way to demean whoever is being called,” junior Emily Koonce said.

Catcalling is actually a form of sexual harassment, which is illegal, yet is still very prominent in many places.

“Verbal sexual harassment should be enforced but it’s not. People should start respecting women in society for once,” junior Ethan Sattler said.

These actions are appearing in junior highs—the education system does not teach 12 year olds that women should be respected.

There are disciplinary actions in schools for verbally assaulting a girl.

“The discipline depends on the severity of the action, it could just a warning or suspension. If it got to an extreme extent then that would become a legal thing,” principal Mike Williams said.

Senior Catie Shirley says men and women should be educated at a young age on how to properly treat women.

“We are taught that when a boy messes with a girl it means he likes you,” Shirley said. “So boys just keep going on with these awful behaviors and girls keep thinking it’s okay because they were taught that it isn’t a bad thing. No one really learns good behavior and how to handle situations like that and it’s so unfortunate.”