Students Take Stand Against School Meanies
By Hosting Week of Anti-Bully Activities
Special to The Miami Herald
BY EILEEN SOLER
They carried protest signs and shouted fearlessly in the face of one of the most prevalent problems kids face everywhere: school bullies.
”One, two, three, four, we don’t want bullies anymore,” about 100 students yelled loud and clear Tuesday during a mock demonstration at the Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School Central Campus.
Organized by the school’s Peer Counselor group led by teacher Mary Jane DeShong, the ”anti-bully protest” was staged in a small field between the campus’s middle school and elementary school just before classes began.
Hundreds of children and dozens of teachers from kindergarten through grade 8 filed past on their way to class and cheered the anti-bully protesters.
”Some kids who are usually shy came out and walked with us,” said peer counselor Chelsea Jahn, 13, of Pembroke Pines.
Rafael Batista, 13, of Davie, who volunteered to help, said he recognized one boy.
”I know he was bullied in the past. Today he was smiling,” Rafael said.
DeShong said the protest was part of a weeklong anti-bully campaign filled with activities that, by chance, corresponded with National No Name-Calling Week.
Chelsea and fellow peer counselor Nicole Jaworski, 14, of Pembroke Pines, played the parts of mascot heroes ”Anti” and ”Bully” to start the week Monday by sharing statistics about bullying on the school’s morning newscast.
The duo reported that 17 percent of students nationwide have been bullied mentally, physically or verbally, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
School Principal Kenneth Bass followed the program with his own message for students.
”There is nothing worse than being a bully or being bullied. It takes away our dignity. Here, we’re not about putting someone down to make ourselves look good. We’re about raising all of us up together to make us all look good,” Bass said.
The five-day event included a contest among the grades called “Villains Are Vicious, Lets Block Them Out.”
Students bought paper bricks for 25 cents each that were then pasted over paper portraits of fictitious bad guys such as Swiper from Dora the Explorer and Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians.
The money went to the school’s outreach project for poor children in Madagascar.
Also during the week, elementary schoolchildren were read Bill Cosby’s anti-bully children’s book titled Little Bill: The Meanest Thing to Say.
Older kids watched a documentary by middle school kids for peers called Let’s Get Real, in which students admitted perpetrating harmful acts, being victimized, or watching it happen.
”It broke my heart,” Nicole said.
Later, children shared tiny fabric creatures, called Warm Fuzzies, attached to slips of paper printed with kind messages. And they competed in anti-bully banner and hat decorating contests.
On Friday, the entire school planned to form a human chain and recite an anti-bully pledge.
– Eileen Soler