By Becki Cohn-Vargas, Not In Our School Director
All of us have experienced cruel behavior, either as a participant, victim or witness. The Not In Our School “Break Bullying”public service announcement, donated by the MAKE ad agency, appears to bring back those bad memories. The announcement depicts adults in a professional environment re-enacting the personal middle school bullying experience of the director, Mike Nelson. His point: If we would not stand for this at work, why do we stand for it happening to kids in schools? The purpose of the PSA is to make us want to do something—to intervene, unlike the co-workers who watch their colleague pushed to the floor.
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October 26, 2012 - 11:49am
Bully Project: Not In Our School Launched in the Philippines
They call themselves “a community of ex-bystanders in the Philippines who have made the decision to take a stand.” This month, they launched a combined Bully Project and Not in Our School campaign to raise awareness about the issue of bullying in the Philippines. By joining the campaign, each individual makes a promise: “I will not be a bully, I will help the bullied, and I will speak up about bullying.” They have over 537 likes on Facebook so far! You can check out their Facebook fan page here.
October 22, 2012 - 5:29pm
Mix It Up Day at Lunch Day—an annual event hosted by Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program—was recently called a “nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools” by The American Family Association. The AFA is an anti-gay evangelical group that is asking parents to keep their children home on Oct. 30 to avoid Mix It Up Day activities, according to the New York Times.
This week, Not In Our Town Executive Producer Patrice O’Neill spoke with Teaching Tolerance director Maureen Costello about the controversy and why activities like Mix It Up Day pave the way for accepting and safe schools.
Patrice O’Neill: What’s the idea behind Mix it Up Day?
October 22, 2012 - 11:17am
October Bullying Prevention Month is almost over. But there is still time to take action!
All month long, we have discussed bullying and showcased creative ways to address it.
During Week 1, we premiered the video “Break Bullying: Not in the Breakroom, Not on the Playground.” This video addressed the urgency and seriousness of bullying, and was featured on the CNN Schools of Thought website and viewed over 50,000 times!
For Week 2, we showed that anyone can speak up and stand up to bullying. We shared innovative and creative ways to be upstanders, people who speak up and stand up to bullying and intolerance.
October 18, 2012 - 5:33pm
Not In Our School “Break Bullying” PSA featured on CNN website!
The NIOS anti-bullying PSA, “Break Bullying,” now has more than 39,000 views! CNN re-posted the video along with a blogpost on their “Schools of Thought” blog, featuring excerpts from an interview with the film’s creator, Mike Nelson. The news giant was impressed with the PSA, calling it a “gut-wrenching” portrayal of bullying that will hopefully make the cruel reality of childhood bullying more salient to adults.