Not In Our School began Bullying Prevention Month with the powerful PSA, “Break Bullying [1]” to stress the serious impact of bullying. We end the month with a focus on SOLUTIONS!

Krista King is the co-adviser with Kurt Dearie of Carlsbad High School's Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) in Carlsbad, CA. Last February, King and Dearie went to the Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership conference and were inspired by the Not in Our School presentation. In the session, they watched and discussed the video titled, "What Do You Say to That's So Gay? [2]"

Back at Carlsbad High, King teaches Graphic Design and Photography. One of the Visual Arts California Content Standards for California high school students is to design a campaign. She put a lot of thought into how to approach this project, asking around to others for their ideas. From there, they began brainstorming. They wanted to create a campaign that the whole school would want to take part in.

King loved the idea of making posters. She played the "What Do You Say to That's So Gay?" video in her classes and they discussed the way a campaign around this topic could impact their school in a positive way.

“Many students agreed that we needed to create awareness because many students were in the habit of saying, ‘That's so gay,’ and they didn't realize that it was so hurtful,” King said.

From these discussions, the “Words Hurt” campaign was created. Students made wonderful graphic posters and their campaign was launched!

Each NIOS Initiative is unique. Tell us about yours. Enter the NIOS “Put Yourself of the Map Contest [3].”