White Out Week Aimed at 'Wiping Out' Hate

White-Out: that handy product used to wipe out mistakes, eliminate errors, allowing us to begin anew.

White-Out Against Bullying: a movement/effort/initiative to wipe out, eliminate practices that demean, embarrass, belittle, or hurt others.

At Watchung Hills Regional High School, March 4-8 was designated as White-Out Against Bullying Week. Programs throughout that period were designed to help students wipe out and eliminate practices that are injurious to others and to show them how to “Speak up; Stand up; Stop hate.”

The climax of the week’s emphasis was White-Out Day, Friday, March 8, when students, faculty and community members were urged to wear white as a symbol of their commitment to speak up, stand up and stop hate.

The Watchung Hills weeklong stop-hate emphasis coincided with the administration of the annual High School Proficiency Exams required of all juniors as part of their graduation requirements. This allowed the various anti-bullying programs, assemblies and special activities—such as signing the huge “Stop Hate” banner, visiting some of the district’s schools to distribute anti-hate stickers and promote sign-ups—to take place mornings in an unhurried manner. The White-Out program’s reach extended not only to all schools in the Watchung Hills district, but also to local township offices and committees, and businesses, many of which “signed on” in the campaign to stop hate.

The varied menu of anti-bullying programs, sponsored by the Guidance and Social Studies Departments, included presentations from persons from varied occupations and backgrounds to videos and a full-length documentary

Among these:

• A kick-off presentation by the Hon. Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman from New Jersey’s 21st District since 2003 and presently Minority Leader, who cited examples of bullying, even in the Legislature, on the Internet and in day-to-day confrontations.
• A video, “Not in Our Schools,” a professionally-made bullying film that features Watchung Hills students in a classroom lesson. The film has become the foundation for a bullying curriculum used in schools across the nation.
• A presentation by Sgt. Thomas Rich, founder of Always Connected, whose field of expertise is cyber-bullying. A certified police officer, he understands well the trends, real life problems and solutions for schools, parents and students tied to cyber-bullying.
• “Ryan’s Story,” a touching history of a boy’s suicide at age 13, told by his father, John Ryan. A powerful presentation about the devastating impact of bullying on a family and community, the film has been viewed by millions of viewers on several television shows.
• “The Bully Project,” a 90-minute feature film that “demonstrates the pained and often endangered lives of bullied youths,” and documents how bullying is handled in society as a whole.
• Somerset County Sheriff Frank Provenzano and Officer Ahmed Mackey spoke about the importance of being an “upstander” instead of a bystander.

On the lighter side, a volleyball tournament took place on Thursday evening, with 16 high school teams and five faculty teams from Warren, Green Brook and Watchung Hills. (Bullying was not observed.)

Students also signed banners in the “Spread the Word to End the Word,” a campaign sponsored by Special Olympics and Best Buddies, to end the use of the hurtful terms “retard” or retarded.

The culmination of the week came on Friday, March 8, when students carried out the campaign slogan to “Wear White to Unite Against Bullying” and came to school in white apparel—many in T-shirts expressly designed for the occasion. During their lunch period they had the privilege of meeting and talking to prestigious guests, such as State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., Speaker Pro Tem/Assemblyman Jerry Green, D-22, and Assemblywoman Nancy Nunez, R-21. Those who had not already done so, signed the huge banner pledging their support for anti-bullying efforts-at school, at home, in their communities, on the playing field and in all their dealings with others. The banner will be hung in the school’s entry lobby.

Members of the school’s Diversity Club, an organization that promotes harmony and acceptance of others, left the school premises at 11 o’ clock for visits with students at next-door Woodland School and Watchung’s Valley View Schools. In both places, the elementary students also pledged their support to the campaign to eliminate bullying, received campaign stickers, and signed their own pledge banners.

The climax of the week’s efforts took place at Watchung Lake, where students tied white ribbons around trees to alert passers-by to the community’s pledge to promote unity. Mayor Jerry Mobus read a proclamation upholding and promoting the precepts of the local anti-bullying movement in Watchung Borough (as did the mayor of Long Hill, Guy Piserchia).

The anti-bullying education campaign was set up, implemented and promoted by social studies department members Jamie Lott-Jones, Mary Sok, Cara Yuknis, and Michelle Krupsky, and by Guidance supervisor Catherine Angelastro and student assistance counselors Julie Kumpf and Gwen Blake

Sok and Lott-Jones are “old hands” at promoting programs that help to create a positive school climate, and have caused Watchung Hills Regional High School to become recognized by such organizations as “Not in Our Schools” for promoting “the Power of One,” and encouraging students to become “upstanders” and not just bystanders in their communities.

Last May , at the spring meeting of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the duo, for a second time, became recipients of the Anti-Defamation League Aaron Flanzbaum 21st Century Democratic Heritage Award for their anti-bias film and discussion materials (produced by the Working Group). Also, Lott-Jones serves on a select nationwide panel developing the framework for a new curriculum for anti-bullying education.