By Matthew Tullis, Project Director for Safe Schools/Healthy Students in Marshalltown, IA
Originally published by the Iowa Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
The city of Marshalltown understands the importance of collaboration. For years the community and its school district have risen to embrace challenges and work together. In the spring of 2012, Mike Schlesinger, Publisher and General Manager of Marshalltown Newspaper, LLC, gathered key community leaders together to address the issue of bullying and hate. Based on a common concern about tragic consequences resulting from bullying that have been reported in Iowa and across the nation, Marshalltown decided immediately to be proactive and spread a common message that this type of behavior is not acceptable in our town.
Blog
November 20, 2012 - 7:29pm
Upstander Spotlight: Queen Creek High School Football Team
Chy Johnson, a 16-year-old student with a genetic brain disorder, was being relentlessly bullied at Queen Creek High School in Arizona and would come home in tears every day. Her mother reached out to Carson Jones, the starting quarterback of the school’s football team, for help. Carson could have simply reported the bullies to his coach or principal, or even ignored the request altogether. Instead, he went above and beyond, inviting Chy to eat lunch with him. Now, Chy eats lunch with Carson and the rest of the football team every day, and goes to every football game to support “her boys.” We admire how Carson and his teammates defied the social restraints of high school to help a bullied student.
November 20, 2012 - 6:02pm
“Regardless of whether she was Eddie or Gwen, she was still my kid.”
—Sylvia Guerrero, Gwen Araujo’s mother
Today is the International Transgender Day of Rememberance. Groups around the world are preparing marches, candlelight vigils and film screenings to memorialize transgender victims of hate crimes.
On this day, we remember Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen who was murdered in 2002. After Gwen was killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, high school students, residents and civic leaders respond, and in so doing, they struggle with how to deal with a brutal and preventable crime.
Their efforts are captured in this 5-minute film:
November 15, 2012 - 4:53pm
This is the second year in a row that Lancaster's students, teachers and parents have celebrated the start of Bullying Prevention Month in their city.
Dozens turned out to watch their mayor and city council sign a Not in Our Town proclamation declaring Lancaster's schools a safe zone from intolerance and hate.
Check out the full story in The Antelope Valley Times.
Just like last year, Mayor R. Rex Harris joined with local school district administrators to officially sign the proclamation that challenges local leaders and students to stand up to bullying in their schools.
Here's the full proclamation:
WHEREAS schools make substantial contributions to the future of America and to the development of our young people as responsible and productive citizens; and
November 12, 2012 - 3:35pm
Ole Miss Students Hold Vigil After Election Night Protests
Last week, University of Mississippi students stood up to another divisive protest. On Election Night, after the re-election of President Barack Obama, more than 400 students gathered to protest, yell racial epithets and burn an Obama campaign sign.
Chancellor Dan Jones quickly denounced the protests, saying students and faculty of the university were “ashamed” of the actions of a few of their peers. The following day, student group One Mississippi gathered about 700 students at a candlelight vigil, where they read the university’s creed to “respect the dignity of each person.” It was the same counter tactic they used when the Ku Klux Klan protested in support of the controversial chant—“the South will rise again”—sung at university football games in 2009.