Typically RESPECT week, the annual week of awareness, education and action around harassment, intimidation and bullying, takes place the first week of October. But this year, we are switching things up! Calais incorporated its week of RESPECT into a full month of anti-bullying activities in honor of October being Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. We also rallied around a central theme of unity as distributed by PACER’s Nationally Bulling Prevention Center. Everything is set to culminate with Unity Day on Wednesday October 25th!

Our Unity Tree Stands Tall

We kicked-off the month with creation of our school Unity Tree. The students worked diligently to draw, cut and design the bright fall colored leaves. Students were asked to design the leaves to reflect positive messages about respect, unity and acceptance. Together each unique leaf creates a mosaic of personal expression reminding us that we are all unique and different, but friends just the same.

Unity Hats, Word Clouds, Friendship Chains & More!

During Girls Group, Mrs. Vitaletti, Mrs. Liberato and Mrs. Gallapo acted out an anti-bullying skit that segued into a great discussion with the students about empathy, tolerance and acceptance. Afterwards the discussion turned into an art lesson where the students were asked to pick their favorite words from our unity word cloud to decorate their own hats.  The girls came up with some really colorful and fun ideas.

Bullying Prevention Awareness Month

Mrs. Conti took it to the next level in her high school English class with a word cloud t-shirt design contest. Using a word cloud generating website she asked her students to create their own word clouds with adjectives and synonyms that insight positivity, understanding, compassion and of course, unity. A winner will be selected and his/her word cloud will be used as an official Calais School t-shirt design this year. Meanwhile, in the elementary school, Ms. Isetts read Spookley the Square Pumpkin during group therapy sessions. Spookley is a square pumpkin learning to love himself in a world full of round pumpkins. Our younger students also participated in art therapy activities which included making anti-bullying signs and friendship chains that are displayed throughout the school.

RESPECT Week

Throughout RESPECT week students share daily thoughts & examples of RESPECT on morning announcements.

On Monday one of our students read a short piece about what a supportive environment is:

“A supporting environment is characterized by or displaying affirmation, acceptance, patience and safety which help to build self-efficacy and self-esteem…

On Tuesday morning, Robert Stutts did a little improvisational acappella rendition of RESPECT (as song by Aretha Franklin).

Ms. Polles’ Creative Writing class has been working on poems and other pieces about what respect and unity mean to them. Some of her students have volunteered to read their work to the school. Later in the week the students will get to watch some videos about peers their age that have experienced and are now taking a stand against bullying. The underlying message of each video is all about compassion, respect for others and respect for ourselves.

A Day of Unity

The height of Respect Week also happens to be National Unity Day. On Wednesday, October 25th, the entire school will be wearing orange, the official color of Unity Day and students will be signing their anti-bullying pledges in homeroom. Overall the collaborative involvement of staff and students throughout the month has reinforced our commitment to helping our students cultivate a sense of self which leads to an understanding of what is important to them and encourage within them feelings of being worthy, deserving, and entitled to be happy.

Established in 2010, the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights (P.L. 2010, c.122) ensures that schools are prepared to recognize, report and prevent bullying. It also takes steps to ensure that schools are creating a positive environment for students.

Questions about our Anti-Bullying policy can be directed to Anti-Bullying Coordinator Paul Thomas Vitaletti, Assistant Director. For more information about New Jersey anti-bullying legislation, visit http://www.njea.org/issues-and-political-action/anti-bullying.