Heads Up: Raise Your Arms

Most days at school, doodling on your body is viewed as an act of boredom. We've all been there... The teacher keeps droning on and you're all out of paper, but hey, your hands, arms, and sometimes face are open canvas. But what if your body could be used to spread a message? Something more meaningful than 'Look at how productive I was in Calculus'?

Readers may recall a day last year when LOVE was written on the wrists of students. Perhaps you tossed it off as another random doodle, after all, that word is tossed around an awful lot these days... But was this the supposed deeper meaning body art deserves?



Indeed. To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit organization bent on educating about and preventing depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. Next Friday, November 12th, is the next scheduled To Write Love on Her Arms Day (via Facebook). If you feel like spreading the message that we were all "created to love and be loved", then bust out those Sharpies and spread the word.

Sometimes just reaching out can save a life. Some people go through life believing they aren't worth anything. But every life matters, and living your life to its full potential is definitely worth something.

TWLOHA donates profits from merchandise and donations on the website to helping those with self-hate seek help. They have many speakers who go and present to schools. Their website is full of many statistics, phone numbers, and ways to help those in trouble.

So, if your arms are otherwise available from long sleeves/extensive bracelets, be sure to join in and help the cause. It only takes four letters, and awareness is a step towards recovery. Get out there, grab a marker, and do some good.



This has been Danielle Hernandez for School News. What are your feelings about To Write Love on Her Arms? To learn more about the cause please visit their website.

Day of Silence by Tara Benner

On April 16, 2010, thousands of students across the globe participated in The National Day of Silence.
“What is the Day of Silence?” You may ask. Well, the Day of Silence is a day when the lesbian, gay, and bi community, along with their friends and supporters, take up a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-Lesbian/Gay/Bi name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools. The participating students wore red to symbolize they were taking part in the activity.
The Day Of Silence Program is not to make a spectacle of one’s self. It is to raise awareness of all the slurs and bullying there are against the gay community. Whether you just say “That’s so gay,” or “You’re such a fag,” you are meaning it to be insulting and rude. Being gay isn’t a negative thing.
Many students have been bullied so harshly about their true or alleged sexuality; they have been driven to suicide. One of these students was 11 year old Carl Walker-Hoover of Massachusetts. Carl had endured slurs and taunts about his alleged sexuality, despite his mother’s pleas for the school to address this problem. Carl hanged himself in the afternoon of April 9th, 2009, just 8 days before his 12th birthday and the National Day of Silence.
According to From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, two of the top three reasons peers were most often bullied at school were actual or supposed sexual orientation and gender expression. The top reason was physical appearance.
"As was the case with Carl, you do not have to identify as gay to be attacked with anti-LGBT language," Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Executive Director Eliza Byard said. "From their earliest years on the school playground, students learn to use anti-LGBT language as the ultimate weapon to degrade their peers. In many cases, schools and teachers either ignore the behavior or don’t know how to intervene."
Unfortunately, Carl’s death was not the first, nor the last to be the result of anti-gay bullying. About a year earlier, eighth-grader Lawrence King was shot and killed by a fellow student in a California classroom, allegedly because he was gay.
Discrimination leads to elimination, as the above examples prove. The Day of Silence is a way you can express your concern for those who are tormented everyday for being someone they are, or aren’t. Next year’s Day of Silence lands on April 15th, 2011.
If you are interested in learning more, visit http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm.

Substance Abuse Program - Alex

Do you think our school has a problem with drugs? Alcohol? Substance abuse in general?



On November 5th there was a meeting at the Therkildsen Center to discuss some recent substance abuse issues occurring amongst youth in the Shelby County area. This was a preliminary meeting and anyone wishing to voice an opinion, sit and listen or be a part of a solution was welcome to attend. In attendance were administrators, school board members, parents, teachers, guidance counselors, clergy, probation officers, law enforcement and concerned community members.

Our wonderful principal, Mr. Wagner, was the leader of the meeting, and lucky enough I was able to sit down with him yesterday and get a little more information about the program. One of the major things he emphasized was the fact that this program was open for anyone to attend, whether it be faculty, parents, or even students. He wants to program to be a community thing, where anyone and everyone can be involved.



The reason this program was started was because there have been a few cases in the school lately that have dealt with drug abuse. By having this program, the community is primarily trying to figure out if there is a problem with drugs in our school, and if there is, what are some things we can do to try to fix this problem. Mr. Wagner told me that drugs have always been a problem in the school, just like any other school, but just recently the problem has begun to increase immensely. In my opinion, I do think there is a problem with drugs in our school. I think a lot of kids turn to drugs because they’ve “heard” that it will make their problems better. And when they turn to drugs, they just can’t stop. A variety of things could contribute to the various problems kids have, whether it be insecurity, jealousness, or the fact that they’re bullied.

To attempt to fix this plausible problem, it is going to take a vast amount of courage, according to Mr. Wagner, and I totally agree with him. It’s going to require a lot of brainstorming to come up with possible solutions to the problem, and courage is going to be a factor in that. Courage is being fearless, brave, confident. It takes one courageous person to start standing up against the use of drugs. And like all us students have learned from Rachel’s challenge, you may just start a chain reaction.



Hopefully all you readers out there will be that one courageous person and stand up against the use and abuse of drugs. If anyone has any opinions on the substance abuse program, or the substance abuse problem in general, I’d love to hear it. Do you think we have a problem? Or not? For anyone wanting to attend, the next substance abuse meeting is Monday, November 23 at 7:00 in the High School Auditorium. Anyone is encouraged to come and voice your opinion!

Heroes In The Hallway!

Heroes In The Hallway from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Tara and RJ get the info on the new group "Heros In The Hallway". watch this video for more information!

Bullying: Can It Be Stopped? by Chris Schaben

There are tragedies in American history that can be remembered with one phrase. One phrase will make people remember horrific events from the past. If I said Titanic, Hurricane Katrina, Pearl Harbor, or 9-11, people would know what I was talking about. What if I said “Columbine?” People wouldn’t directly associate the word with the high school in Jefferson County, Colorado. Instead of thinking of the place, they would think of the event. They would think back to April 20, 1999, when two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, brought guns to Columbine High School and killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. What could have led two people to planning such a deadly massacre? Would anyone have ever guessed that bullying could lead up to something so horrifying? Bullying needs to be stopped because it harms people both verbally and physically, and only bystanders and victims can stop it. But can it be stopped?



Bullying is a major problem for students throughout the world. In a 1991 study of U.S. children, 81% of boys and 72% of girls from the ages of 7 to 12 reported being bullied. And in a recent study, 77% of teens said they have been bullied verbally, mentally, or physically, and 30% of U.S. students in grades six through ten are also involved in frequent bullying. Statistics show that each month 1 out of 4 kids is bullied or abused by another, and each day about 160,000 students miss school because they fear that they will be bullied if they go. As you can see, bullying is a major issue that many students fear and remember for the rest of their lives.

At first glance, bullying might not seem like a huge deal. However, bullying may lead to some very serious effects. Students who get bullied frequently usually have a tough time making friends and may skip school, causing their grades to drop. Victims can also develop severe depression and physical illness such as lack of sleep and appetite. As bullying goes unnoticed, the situation gets worse. There have been many occasions where the victim has committed suicide or has started carrying a weapon, such as a gun or knife, to protect himself. The truth is that the results of bullying can cause harm to the victims or anyone around them. But victims are not the only ones whose future gets affected. Children that bully others are more likely to use drugs and alcohol as adolescents, and the continuation of bullying may also lead to more serious acts of criminal activity in their adult lives. Bullying needs to be stopped before someone’s life is ruined!

So, how should we solve the ever-growing problem of bullying? Most schools have anti-bullying programs and assemblies to stop bullying. But that will not stop it! Research by Canadian psychologist David Smith found that 57% of anti-bullying policies had no measurable benefit, 14% yielded mild improvement, and 29% actually made the problem worse! Schools always try to target the bullies and tell them that what they’re doing is wrong. The people they should actually be targeting are victims and bystanders. Victims are the most important people to address in anti-bullying programs. It’s not their fault they are being bullied, but they are the ones most likely to react to bullying in the way that will result in someone getting hurt. Bullies aren’t the ones committing suicide and shooting up schools. Fighting back rarely works, so victims need to learn how to ignore comments said by bullies. Bullies only tease or make fun of people who act afraid. The bully will eventually stop if the victim acts like the bullies isn’t bothering him. Another solution to the problem is to teach bystanders, which includes adults and other students, to step in and stop the bullying from going on. All bullies want is attention. Unfortunately, they try to get it in the most negative way. If bystanders tell the bully that his actions aren’t funny, he will probably leave the victim alone. Bullies are also intimidated by large groups, so they won’t bully victims if they are surrounded by other people. We must all face the truth that bullying is inevitable, a natural byproduct of human nature.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is a quote that every victim of bullying should keep in my mind. They should always remember that someone has their backs, whether it is a parent, teacher, or friend. Nobody is ever completely lonely and unloved, and bullies can’t make other students feel that way! Bullying needs to be stopped because it harms people both verbally and physically, and only bystanders and victims can stop it. Although bullying can’t be stopped completely, its power can be removed. And the only way to remove the power is for the victims to act unafraid or for bystanders to step in and help. If this doesn’t happen, we may have another “Columbine” on our hands. But what would be even worse is if the word “Columbine” was replaced by another school’s name. All it takes is just one bully to say one bad thing to one victim for one disaster to take place. What should be done about bullying? Please leave a comment about how bullying has affected you and how we can try to stop it.