I created a school program that students of all grades within the high school can be a part of. The Bully Free Zone Organization (BFZO) is an anti-violence program that emphasizes raising awareness of the diversity in each of us. Similar to a Civil Rights Team, the BFZO works towards eliminating violence and hate crimes within the school environment. These hate crimes include:
- Sexual Harrassment
- Homosexuals
- Low Socioeconomic Students
- Race
- Obesity
- Stereotypes
- And many more!
A survey of over 15,000 sixth to tenth graders found that nearly 1/3 of the males and six percent of the females had been bullies, victims, or both. Schools should be safe for children the the youth. They should not be afraid of the school environment and they should not have to desperately find excuses for not going to school. This is where the BFZO comes in.
Students who join BFZO participate in many social events and activities that all work for the purpose of educating students on the problem of school violence and its severity. Most children who harass others do it for a number of reasons such as attention, attaining power, to be funny, or because they simply do not understand the victim or his or her situation. Because of this lack of understanding, the bully can be scared of the victim. To eliminate this fear, the BFZO educates students on the variety of each other in creative, engaging, and fun ways!
Day of Silence: Members of the BFZO each year will organize a day in which everyone is not allowed to speak at all. What is the purpose of this? The purpose serves many reasons. This activity serves mostly the homosexual community and attempts to depict to others what homosexuals deal with everyday. They live in silence, in fear of others finding out their sexuality. By students participating in the Day of Silence, it allows them to fully understand the inability of being themselves and living in a world where they cannot have a voice. After the day is over, the students will be able to say that they lived in the shoes of another student. They will understand their situation and be aware of the respect that needs to be shown to these other children.
Culture Week: This is a phenomenal and fun-filled week where members of the BFZO takes each day of the week and picks a culture to focus on. They set up a site, either in the lunchroom or library or auditorium, focusing on that culture. For example, the members can pick African American culture or Jewish culture. At the site, the students are dressed like the people in the culture. Poster boards are put up with information on the religion, traditions, and facts about these people. There can even be food from that culture that is put up for students to sample. This enables students to see representations of the diversity of different cultures and allows them to actually experience their ways of living.
Fasting For You: This day is also set up by BFZO student members where the children will not eat for one whole day (each student needs to fill out a permission and consent form along with the parents). The purpose of this activity is to allow students to experience the pain of hunger that other students of low socioeconomic status live with everyday. The pain of being hungry for just one day, with the realization that some kids are hungry for more than just one day, will help other students realize how blessed they are.
Tally Today: This is an interesting activity that members of the BFZO present to their peers. In this activity, the students are asked to go about their day like they usually would, however, they are to keep a tally of each time they hear a demoralizing thing said. This comment can be a joke or a serious comment... no matter how it is meant to be taken, the student should mark the tally on a piece of paper. The next day, students should bring in their tallies and combine all of them. This activity will raise awareness among the students because they are seeing how much discrimination takes place in our lives.
Donations For Causes: Members of the BFZO also are able to find and pick causes that they want to raise money for (with the permission of proper school officials). For example, the students can host a can drive for soup kitchens, raise money for causes such as the Jena Six, Cancer patients, etc...
There are many more activities that students who are members of the BFZO participate in. They do community volunteer work, work with younger children, etc... Not only does the BFZO work towards eliminating violence within the school system, but it also improves the students' communication skills and ability to work in groups with their peers of many different varieties.
The BFZO also has other benefits other than the elimination of violence. Students who become members of the BFZO will receive half a credit that goes towards their requirement of credits to graduate, they receive experience with their peers and younger children, they fight against violence in their schools, they see the improvement within the environment, and the membership looks great on their college application!!
It's easy to become a member of the BFZO! Any student who is interested in the cause can go to the school office and receive an application. Once they are finished with filling in the application, they turn it back in to the office and wait for an email confirming their membership. Along with the email they receive will be information on the first meeting of the group.
No comments:
Post a Comment