On November 29, 2017, the Rocklin High School students gathered in the gymnasium to listen to JC Pohl, who travels around the country going school to school in hopes of getting teenagers to recognize what’s going on in the world around us.

Pohl works for an organization known as Teen Truth, which was established in 2006. The Team Truth community has visited 7,038 school and counting.

The Team works to build up teenagers self esteem, as they realize that it’s constantly being broken down as a teen in 2017. Pohl explained that being a teenager in 2017 is harder than ever, due to social media, school work, and the constant pressure to  wear the right clothes, look a certain way, act just right, and please everyone.

Pohl knows that the constant pressure to be nothing less than perfect is the cause of drinking, smoking, and suicide. He went over how even a simple thing like what to post on Instagram can be a huge decision in a teenagers mind. A reputation is everything to a teenager.

The overall message of the assembly was that the students should be open and honest with their feelings and stand up for yourself and others.

So what did the Rocklin High Community think of this assembly put on by the Teen Truth speakers? Did they think it was beneficial? Or did they think it was just another reason to get out of class?

Most students did not take the assembly seriously, but the point of the assembly was to get the message across to others and spread awareness. The message was brilliant but the speaker and overall delivery was lacking genuity.

The speaker attempted to try and get people involved by treating them with bracelets, but others felt that the people who stood up and spoke only did so for the prizes.

Students who were sitting down were told that if they were not making the difference, they were doing nothing. This phrase was taken the wrong way by others.People felt as though saying they were doing nothing was impolite. They believed he was assuming things about them when really they might not have been comfortable with speaking in front of the student body.

Also, he told the population of students that they were bullies if they have ever spread a rumor, called someone a name, or shoved another. But the bullying someone is abusing another, physically or mentally, over time. Individuals who sat down felt like he was telling people that they were bullies even if they had only done such a thing once.

Though I cannot speak for the students of Rocklin High, I believe it was a good way to spread awareness of the issue that is being a teen in today’s culture. Although the videos seemed a bit outdated, and at times the background music seemed rather cheesy, I think that they were able to connect with the students by relating to us.