Creating A Culture Of Kindness In Rocky Point

MILLER PLACE-ROCKY POINT, NY - From the Rocky Point Union Free School District via Syntax: Rocky Point High School’s Peer Networking Group worked with school social worker Jennifer Zaffino this fall to design an initiative aimed at promoting kindness and compassion within and beyond the walls of the school this year.

Returning group members met in early September to create and promote an Up-Stander Declaration that speaks to behavior that the students wish to see in their lives – both at school and in the community. The pledge, which is mirrored after the “Day 1 Pledge,” focuses on treating others with respect, kindness and empathy. Members of the entire student-body had the chance to learn about the initiative during a special morning announcement shared by group members and were invited to join the cause by becoming kindness ambassadors and signing a copy of the declaration this fall.

The school plans to celebrate those who display “up-standing” behaviors on the building’s new “Up-Standers Tree” completed last year by the life skills students who are enrolled in Robert Ciaccio’s technology course and the students in John Schumacher's Principals of Engineering class. The wooden sculpture features a
number of leaves, which will each bear the names of those “caught being good.”

Photo courtesy of the Rocky Point School District