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Standing up to Bullying
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Struthers Middle School kicked off Bullying Prevention Week at an assembly Monday morning. From left are Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker and guidance counselor Kendra Broome. Kneeling is fifth-grader Jacob Dankovich. Clockwise around the sign are sixth-grader Jenna Farkas, sixth-grader Brianna Ostrowski, eighth-grader Matthew Bollinger, eighth-grader Ryan Kern, sixth-grader John Medvec, eighth-grader Nigeria Morgan, fifth-grader Channon Adriana Wuattro and fifth-grader Mariah Mass. Behind them is school principal Peter Pirone and Yvonne Wilson, juvenile diversion officer.
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Anti Bully assembly at Struthers Middle School - Mariah Mas 5th grader shows off the buttons each student received from the catholc school to share against bullying .
Struthers hopes to make a difference
By Jeanne Starmack
STRUTHERS
Harley Chapman, a seventh-grader at Struthers Middle School, never liked it when other kids teased her.
So she went to her parents for advice.
“You should just say, ‘That really hurts my feelings,’” she said.
And by the way, since she knows how it feels to be teased, she won’t do it to anyone else.
Welcome to Bullying Prevention Week at Struthers Middle School. Bullying has traditionally been a rite of passage for many school-age kids, but the adults who guide them through their school days are trying to change that.
Organized by guidance counselor Kendra Broome and Juvenile Diversion Officer Yvonne Wilson, the school’s anti-bullying week will include an activity for every day, leading up to Friday’s big finale — International Stand Up to Bullying Day.
Don’t be puzzled if your son wears pink to school Friday. You should wear pink, too, if you want to be in solidarity with the day’s message.
Why pink? At an assembly Monday morning to kick off the week, the fifth- through eighth-graders watched a video about two boys at a Canadian high school who wore pink shirts to protest mistreatment of a ninth-grader who had worn one.
The boys started a movement that spread to other high schools — the “sea of pink.”
“They made a difference, and so can you,” Broome told the assembly.
“We’re going to stand up to bullying,” Mayor Terry Stocker told the middle-schoolers. He flashed back to his days in the Struthers schools, when as a “skinny” kid just trying to go home for lunch, he was picked on.
“Well, we don’t put up with that,” he said. “It’s a different era.”
He and other city officials brought a proclamation that encourages “all citizens to make our community bully-free.”
On Monday, students also were asked to wear Struthers T-shirts, or at least red shirts, to symbolize a team.
Today, they will write about a time they took a stand against bullying or a way they could stand up for themselves or another person.
They’ll get creative and stylish with their socks Wednesday for Sock it to Bullying Day.
And Thursday, they’ll wear their favorite team shirts, jerseys or uniforms.
Several students said they are appreciative of the effort to make their school a bullying-free zone.
“People could die, so it’s like, saving us,” said seventh-grader Carly Jackson, referring to news reports of students who were bullied then killed themselves.
“I think some kids don’t know how bad bullying is,” said seventh-grader Alyssa Grewe. “And this helps.”