Students Receive Grant to Teach Anti-Bullying Class

The Student Council received a $5,000 grant from Special Olympics to teach an anti-bullying class to their peers starting Oct. 3.

The classe, which will last seven weeks, will teach sixth through eighth-graders how to accept and help others. Called Step Into My Shoes (SIMS), the class will feature guest lecturers made possible by the grant.

Eighth-grader Samantha Inman and seventh-grader Rhiannon Creighton wrote the grant proposal and said: “We are planning a seven-week service learning curriculum designed to help students become aware of who they are in this world, what’s the difference in themselves and others, and mostly, how it is okay to be who you are. Activities will also include teaching students to become advocates for others, learning to be kind, bullying awareness, and using service learning activities to benefit the student body and community.”

The course will feature five main themes of value, kindness, respect, responsibility and service. The entire school will get involved and host an Abilities Awareness Day on Oct. 26, where residents will come in and teach kids about seeing value in one another.

“We would like to improve the view and outlook of the lives of our middle school students by teaching them about acceptance, dignity, and advocacy for all people. We hope to make a difference in our school and transfer that out to our community and the area we live in,” wrote Inman and Creighton in their grant proposal.

The grant is part of a national program within the Special Olympics called Project UNIFY. Its goal is to activate youth around the country to help all young people accept each other despite intellectual and disability differences.