Soledad High School in Soledad, CA is in its second year of implementing its Not In Our School campaign. We are happy to give the first NIOS club seniors “Not In Our School” sashes to proudly wear at their graduation ceremony.
NIOS Director Becki Cohn-Vargas recently interviewed NIOS Club members Alex, Robert, Daisy and Ivan. In this interview, these students share how taking a leadership stance against bullying on their campus has helped them grow personally and what they have learned since starting a NIOS club.
Becki: When you guys started the cyberbullying club, you gathered some data. What did you find out?
Alex: What we found out was it seemed like people were more willing to allow bullying to happen, people just didn’t care. It’s funny, people often say that they will stand up to others, and they won’t let anyone encroach on their territory, but from what we saw through the surveys is that people just don’t care. They’ll let other people get shoved.
interview
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?
Soledad High School students come together to pledge against bullying. Photo Courtesy of Monterey County Office of Education.Soledad High School Assistant Principal Laura Eras and Intervention Specialist Myra Chavez called us from Soledad, CA, a small farming community located 25 miles southeast of Salinas. Using Not In Our School materials, they launched a weeklong anti-bullying campaign.