Bradley speaks to Girls State delegates amid harassment stories in Sterling

More than 100 high school juniors at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling turned a civic leadership program into a far more personal conversation when they began sharing sexual harassment stories with state Rep. Brandi Bradley. The delegates’ concerns gave the Colorado Girls State gathering a sharper edge than a routine speech, tying the week’s lessons on government directly to the safety issues young women say they already face in schools and public spaces.

The American Legion Auxiliary Colorado Girls State program was scheduled for June 7-13 at NJC and is built around a simple civics lesson: students elect officials and run a mock government to learn how public institutions work. The program is intended for high school juniors, and the American Legion Auxiliary says local units sponsor delegates and generally cover registration fees, making the event both a leadership seminar and a pipeline into future civic participation.

Sterling has become a larger home for the program in recent years. Organizers said NJC can host up to 135 delegates, the 2025 session drew 113 attendees, and the 2023 session included 94 delegates and 29 staff. That 2023 gathering was the first year Colorado Girls State was held at Northeastern Junior College, and the college offered scholarships to delegates that year.

Bradley, a Republican who represents Colorado House District 39, entered the Sterling event under heavy scrutiny of her own. She had filed an ethics complaint in July against Rep. Ron Weinberg, alleging sexually harassing comments and misuse of a master key to access restricted Capitol areas. Colorado House ethics investigators later found probable cause on parts of the complaint, and Weinberg was ordered to attend sexual-harassment prevention training.

The timing also made Bradley’s appearance more complicated. House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell reprimanded her in early June over alleged conduct involving the House chief clerk, placing her in the middle of an unfolding Capitol dispute even as she addressed teenagers learning how to govern. Still, delegates responded to the discussion with frank accounts of harassment and with thanks for advocacy on women’s issues.

For Logan County, the scene underscored why Girls State matters beyond the classroom exercises. In Sterling, the program was not only teaching how to count votes and fill offices. It was exposing how the next generation of civic leaders is already thinking about power, accountability and how institutions respond when young women say they have been mistreated.