Snohomish County Boys & Girl Club sponsoring law and justice day event for girls April 14

The Snohomish County-based group InspireHER will host its second annual “Don’t Judge Me” event  for girls in grades 8-12 this Saturday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in Meadowdale Hall 124 at Edmonds Community College, 20000 68th Ave.

InspireHER is an organization powered by the Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County to improve the lives of girls, and inspire them to succeed.

Girls are invited to learn about careers in the law and justice field from professionals who are currently working in those roles. Participants will also hear from local advocates who will cover topics such as teen dating violence and human trafficking.

“These are important, extremely relevant topics that not only surround these girls in the media, but some are also dealing with these issues on a personal level. It’s important to talk about that,” said Snohomish Boys & Girls Club Director Marci Volmer.

The day will kick off with a presentation by Pastor Scott Mitchell, who will discuss human trafficking and how to recognize the signs among peers. A session on teen dating violence from City of Monroe Judge Mara Rozzano and Everett Assistant City Attorney Lacey Offutt will follow.

A career panel is scheduled for after lunch, featuring a range of speakers including Jennifer Rancourt, a current candidate for a Snohomish District Court Judge position, Everett criminal defense attorney Tom Cox, local paralegal Castill Hightower, plus members of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit and Everett Police’s Community Outreach and Enforcement Team.

“These girls will have the unique chance to not only hear from, but interact with, experts in the field and can see that if they put their minds to it, they can be a judge, a lawyer, a law enforcement officer, whatever they can imagine,” Volmer said. “Anything is possible.”

The day will conclude with a tour of EdCC, for attendees that are interested.

This workshop is free, lunch is provided, and each attendee will receive a free, one-year membership to the Boys & Girls Club. Those interested are encouraged to register online.

  1. Wow!! an organization to help improve the lives of girls, what about the boys? Don’t they deserve help as well? I feel for the young boys of today because so much is against them. No one stops girls from doing anything they want but the victim card is played over and over again. We keep hearing cries for gender equality (which is ridiculous because the genders are different) but males are being constantly under attack and put down. How is that fair or right? As a woman I am so tired hearing about women and their oppression, rights, etc. In this country nobody stops a woman from becoming successful, etc. but by playing the victim they never move forward. Men and women need each other so we need to stop fighting against them.

    1. I think boys are sufficiently represented in the legal and justice fields, Linda. Did you even read the article?

  2. So much of this is based on the thinking of the past. Just yesterday I heard someone on a national news program use “women make only 77 cents on the dollar of men” despite the fact that even publications like the NYT disproved it years ago. When actual number of hours are used to measure and comparing same jobs instead of “equivalent” jobs it just isn’t the case anymore. The sad thing is that so many are still hammering todays girls with the “fact” that they are at a compettive disadvantage yet the labor departments own statistics show that girls are more likely to go to college than boys and that in the millenial age group girls average 8% MORE pay than boys.

    1. Did you completely miss the part about educating girls about human trafficking? We have a huge problem in our region and it’s our children who are trafficked.

      1. What I commented on was the OP point of focusing on just girls and ignoring boys. Using an example that pretty much all of us have heard in the national debate for years. For the most part it is done with the best of intentions, feeling that girls have to be boosted to compete with boys, it was clearly the case in the past it really is not the same situation today.

        1. I don’t see anything about pay wage gaps in this article at all so not sure where this is coming from in the first place. And to Linda’s comment, where do find anything in here about “playing the victim?” As you point out, genders are different, and having an event tailored towards one gender seems to reinforce what you are stating. Seems like a great event encouraging girls to consider careers in the law and justice fields. A a father of two daughters I think this is wonderful. I’ll also add as a white male I definitely don’t feel “constantly under attack and put down.”

          1. Do you believe that your daughters need help to compete with the boys in their age group? If not then why support any effort that excludes one group to help the other? If the very same organization existed that the article was about, but swap boys for girls, how many would feel that it is discriminatory? I saw that as the basis of Linda’s comment.

          2. This assumes that something about my daughters’ lives is a competition against their peers but that is not the case. Efforts that encourage the participation of underrepresented groups of people in certain fields are a good thing. I would have no problem with similar efforts where males are underrepresented. That may be elementary education, stay-at-home parenting, nursing, etc.

  3. LOL, I think we DO have some trolls here! Women in the work force are indeed underpaid for the work they do as compared to men because businesses can get by with it. Wake up and smell the dollars folks, or the lack thereof.

    1. Yes that is the perception but is it accurate? The NYT is hardly a right wing rag, the Obama Administration Labor Department was not likely putting out false numbers in 2015 to make women look like they make more than they do. The studies that show the largest wage gaps tend to play with numbers. For example, take some random job like bus drivers or grocery clerks… If you look at all female and all male drivers from hire to retire and say the men averaged more money (per year or in total) than the women that is “proof of a wage gap” but only if you ignore the fact that the men as a group averaged more total hours worked than the women. Kathy if we both work as clerks at Albertsons, and I work 100 hours a year less than you, do you feel that I should make the exact same amount as you at the end of the year? And if we don’t both make the same amount despite you working more hours is that proof of gender descrimination in the grocery industry? My problem with some of the studies is yes that is proof in their eyes.

  4. Women in the work place earn 80 % of what men do performing the same job, same number of hours. Google it. They should earn an equal amount for a job done equally well done, same education and same # of work hours. Period!

    1. There are many advocacy pieces on both sides of the position. Please cite the source that shows that women working the same (not equivalent) jobs and same hours earn 80%. For example I saw one that compared janitors to housekeepers since they felt those jobs are the same. One is male dominated and the other female dominated. They then use the average of each and determine that men make more than women. Ignoring that they are similar not the same jobs, they also determined that women janitors counted as men and male housekeepers counted as women.

      A wise person once said “equality cannot happen until you stop giving me a hand up, when you realize I don’t need your help to be your equal, then and only then are we equal.”

        1. One-sentence stereotyping helps no one. What this thread has morphed into is a very complex topic, and dismissive comments aimed at half the population are unserious.

        2. No one stops girls or women from doing anything they want. If someone wants to go into a particular field then they will. Opportunities are out there for everyone if they want to take them.

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