Schools
Seaford High School Students Stand Up To Bullying
The students created a special video project to show "What Should Have Happened."
From the Seaford School District: Bully Rewind was the theme of a video project in Stephanie Bartkus’ health classes at Seaford High School. Students worked in groups to create videos that simulated bullying incidents, then followed up with “What Should Have Happened” scenarios.
The videos were made as part of the stress and bullying unit. Each project started out with a scene of a student being pushed, insulted or taunted for being different, while bystanders did nothing to stop it. The second half of each video shows the same act of bullying, but with another student intervening.
In some of the scenarios, the bullying victim copes with a video of the incident being sent around. One student shares a video of bullying with the assistant principal, who then addresses the situation with the bullies and suspends them.
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The students wrote the scripts, filmed the videos and edited using iMovie. The completed videos ranged from a minute and a half to seven minutes long. Videos included messages such as “If you see something, say something” and “Choose to be an upstander.”
Ms. Bartkus said that the project gave students the opportunity to understand the emotional toll that bullying takes on people, as well as the serious consequences that bullies can face. The purpose was to promote a school culture of acceptance, inclusion and tolerance. Because most of the students who made the videos are freshman and sophomores, she hopes the messages will stick with them throughout high school and beyond.
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“This is an assignment the students will remember for a long time,” Ms. Bartkus said. “This was an authentic way to prevent bullying and practice kindness and respect. I’m really proud of the students because the videos were very well done.”
Photo courtesy of Seaford School District: Seaford High School health teacher Stephanie Bartkus was joined by students who worked on antibullying videos, from left, Kevin Weir, Giana Cesario, Sophia Sackett, Emel Acar, Edona Mehmett and Sofia Sanfilippo.
