The Baldwin County School District participates in National Bullying Prevention Month throughout October. While each school had its own plans, Midway Hills Academy decided to host a school-wide pep rally to not only promote bullying prevention but honor Unity Day.
National Bullying Prevention Month is a campaign founded in 2006 by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center. Initially held the first week in October, the event was expanded in 2010 to the entire month.
“Historically, bullying had been viewed as “a childhood rite of passage” that “made kids tougher,” but the reality has always been that bullying can leave devastating and often long-term effects such as a loss of self-esteem, increased anxiety, and depression for those involved,” states the PACER website. “PACER reached out to the community through partnerships with education-based organizations such as the National PTA, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association to provide schools, parents and students with the educational resources and support to better respond to bullying behavior.”
According to the website, Unity Day, which was Oct. 16 this year, was started in 2011 by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center as a call to action to “Make it Orange and Make it End. Unite Against Bullying!” It has now become a part of the annual observation of National Bullying Month with students, educators, and others from around the country wearing orange to celebrate.
“We sent out information prior to Unity Day to the students, staff, and their families to wear orange, as that was the theme of the day,” said Terri Carty, principal of Midway Hills Academy. “We wanted to show and promote kindness, acceptance, and inclusion.”
Third through fifth graders attended the Unity Day Pep Rally with Kizzi Walker, the Baldwin High School girl’s basketball coach, as the MC and many presentations to get the students pumped and happy while learning.
“We had the drill team show off a dance and some cheers for anti-bullying, students completed some raps about being nice and being a good friend, and some of the students did skits,” said Carty. “Kids were up, dancing, and cheering. It was a very exciting day.”
Students also signed a Unity Day Pledge as part of the rally. While Carty did not specify the exact wording of the pledge signed by students, the pledge on the PACER website states, “I pledge to support others who have been hurt or harmed, treat others with kindness, be more accepting of people’s differences, and help include those who are left out.”
Carty stated that the goal is to make students aware of bullying and feel comfortable reporting it to a trusted adult. They discussed how to report bullying and why it’s important for the safety of both their classmates and themselves.
“If you ask any of my students and they feel bad about reporting something, I remind them what my first priority is and they will respond, “to keep us safe,” said Carty. “We don’t want them to take it into their own hands, so we stress the importance of reporting and creating relationships so that students feel comfortable reporting the issue.”
Counselor Lauren Birston was the leader behind planning the Unity Day Pep Rally. She helped to select students to present and come up with activities that would make the day impactful on students watching and participating.
“We had a student who was hesitant to perform once they saw the size of the crowd and it was amazing to see how the excitement built up to that point led students to encourage them and chant their name and really hype them up to perform,” said Carty. “That type of encouragement and kindness is what we want to see from our students every day.”
Beyond National Bullying Prevention Month, Midway Hills Academy uses morning meetings, check-in and check-outs with students coming into and out of the classroom, and their Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) expectations to stay aware of potential bullying or needs for intervention.
“Many schools use PBIS nationwide. You focus on positive behaviors and be proactive in your approach on those. For example, we give out positive points and have our GROW matrix, which has expectations for different areas. We review these expectations commonly and positive points earned can be used toward monthly incentives and weekly incentives in the classroom.”
To learn more about National Bullying Prevention Month or PACER, visit https://www. pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/.