Haine students take part in anti-bullying program
CRANBERRY TWP — Nearly 600 students at Haine Middle School took part in a collaborative art project meant to build inclusion, acceptance, friendship and kindness as part of the Olweus Bullying Prevention program.
Students contributed to a mural that was assembled in the main lobby hallway of the school. The mural was revealed during an assembly Wednesday meant to keep the message of the Olweus program fresh in the students' minds, said Cassandra Doggrell, school principal.
“We're finding it more important as the year goes on that students have a piece in creating what we're fostering here,” Doggrell said. “We want the students to have a voice in this initiative.”
The Olweus program helps students know how to respond when someone is being bullied and how to prevent bullying through weekly class meetings with their teachers. Doggrell said they have been using the book “Wonder” written by R. J. Palacio as part of the program.
The book was recently made into a film by the same name that was released in November and stars Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts. In it a fifth-grade boy named Auggie who has a facial deformity attends public school for the first time and deals with bullying, but makes friends who support him along the way. The novel's message is one of empowerment, fostering friendships and advocating for those who need support, Doggrell said.
“It really empowers kids to stand up for each other in positive ways,” she said.
Students were asked to decorate an Auggie face, like the one on the cover of the book, with who they wanted to be or how they wanted to represent themselves, said Megan Lizewski, assistant principal.
The faces were added to a larger mural that was covered up throughout the day. After the assembly, the rest of the mural was revealed. In lights, the teachers had spelled out “Wonder of yet.”
“Yet” goes with the building's theme that encourages students to have a growth mindset, Doggrell said, which is the belief that people's abilities are a result of hard work and dedication.
“The best is yet to come,” she said.
This is the first time the students took part in a collaborative project like this as part of the Olweus program, Doggrell said.
Katie Mack, a sixth grader, said she's read “Wonder” several times and loves how she can connect with different characters in the book.
She liked decorating an Auggie face because each student could represent themselves and it helped her learn about her fellow students.
“You could learn a lot about people by looking each individual face,” she said. Katie said bullying is not a big issue at Haine because the students stand up for one another.
“I think that came from this program,” she said of the OLWEUS initiative.
