Students at Green Valley School in Grunthal heard a strong message Friday morning about the importance of breaking the silence on violence against women.

Guidance Councillor Cameron Gerbrandt says violence and harassment toward women has become a prevalent topic internationally and it is important to address it with their students.

"Those things come up in our classes all the time and our students, especially our high school students will talk about the Me Too movement and Never Again and things like that. We try and address current issues in our classes."

Green Valley Student Faith says it is important that students talk about the rules of consent and what is appropriate especially as the negative effects of harassment and violence are brought into the light.

"I definitely think that it is a topic that has come up a lot more than in the past. I think that since we have social media nowadays, more awareness is being brought to it and I am really happy that we can actually talk about it because it is an important issue. It is really good that we can get someone in to really bring it up and get us talking because it is good to talk about."

The special assembly was presented by Matthias Goossen of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. It encouraged students to step out and confront bad behaviour rather than being a bystander. He also focused on the rules of consent. Gerbrandt says open dialogue is a key to moving forward.

"I think just like any issue, speaking about it more than just thinking ‘I spoke about it once so now we are good and we can go on to something else’, that is not the way it works. What happens is you have to speak about something over and over again and I think that becomes who we are once we have heard it many many times in different formats."