Kids Take A Stand Against Bullying

DAYTON - A group of Dayton students spent a day of their spring break to paint murals advocating for respect and the end of bullying.

Amer icorps member Brittney Jacobs was assigned to complete a service learning project during her time working at Dayton Middle School and she had the idea to address a problem she has seen at the school - bullying.

"It's something I personally see that needs help in the community," Jacobs said.

Peggy Gutierrez, a prevention specialist with Blue Mountain Counseling who helped oversee the mural projects, said the Students Helping Each Other club had also identified bullying as an issue in the school at its retreat.

Jacobs said she wanted to have students work together who commonly bully each other to help break up cliques in the school. Working in the school, she said she often hears name calling, negative words and put-downs from one student to another for seemingly no reason.

"They are struggling to get along," she said.

The district has a no-tolerance attitude toward bullying, Jacobs said, and there are consequences for students who bully others including suspension.

She asked students for ideas on what the murals should look like to include the anti-bullying theme and identified three spots on the middle school wall that seemed to be perfect for the new artwork.

She created a proposal for the project and was able to obtain $250 for paints and materials.

Jacobs was hoping for about 15 to 20 kids to participate in painting the murals, but she ended up with three on April 3 because many students were gone for Spring Break. From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. that day, Jacobs and her three artists, Alishia Johnson, Carlos Oribio and Cal Martin, worked hard painting the Dayton Bulldog in three different murals to show that the dog did not like bullying.

"We wanted it to resemble bullying and have (the message) be heard in our school," Jacobs said.

Also, the elementary school Principal Katie Leid asked the students to paint some respect and sports murals on the walls inside the school.

Jacobs said the students who participated, in middle school and high school and part of the SHEO club, were so excited about the project they even showed up early and shared experiences they had about being bullied with one another.

"These students were very passionate about the idea (of ending bullying)," she said.

Jacobs said she was very happy, surprised and encouraged by how the students wants to get the word out to their peers that bullying is an issue in the school and that they wanted to make a difference.

Gutierrez said she was thrilled with the project and the bullying and respect murals are a great constant reminder to students that their negative actions will not be tolerated.

"This is the most visible and impactful (message)," Gutierrez said.

She doesn't know if the murals will change the bullying culture in the schools immediately, but she hopes it has an impact in the long run.

"Over time with enough reminders, we'll see a change or a reduction (in bullying)," Gutierrez said.