The students from Light of the World Academy took to the streets of Pinckney on Monday with an important message: Their school won’t tolerate bullying.
After spending the morning making signs and taking part in a variety of other anti-bullying activities, the students marched to downtown Pinckney in the afternoon to hold an anti-bullying rally. They held up signs, chanted anti-bullying slogans and encouraged cars driving by to give them a supportive honk of the horn.
Light of the World Academy is a K-7 Montessori charter school located at the old St. Mary’s School building in Pinckney, and the school takes its anti-bullying efforts seriously, said School Director Kathy Moorehouse.
“We’re part of a program called WE Day, a national organization that encourages schools to make a difference both locally and globally,” Moorehouse said. “There’s an anti-bullying program that’s a part of this called ‘Live WE for Me,’ which helps the kids to realize that as one person, they can change the world. We wanted them to realize that when it comes to bullying, they can make a huge difference at their own school.”
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so Light of the World Academy decided it was the perfect time to take a stand against bullying.
“The kids have begun to realize on their own that they have a big impact on their peers if they stand up to bullying themselves,” Moorehouse said. “Kids are more likely to be bully-free by following their classmates, more than if they just hear it from adults. If someone is being bullied and one of their peers says, ‘No don’t do that,’ they’re more likely to stop. So this entire project was led by the older kids at the school.”
The sixth- and seventh-graders spent the morning on Monday being totally silent for a full hour or more.
“We did this because we wanted to see what it was like to have no voice,” said seventh-grader Katelyn Hardy. “When you are getting bullied, you really have no voice, because you’re afraid to say something. We wanted to experience what that was like.”
The students in grades 6-7 then encouraged the fourth- and fifth-graders to also take an oath of silence, which they did.
“We wanted to stand up for children who are being bullied to show that they don’t always have a voice,” said seventh-grader Lottie Moorehouse.
Light of the World Academy’s students also spent time making anti-bullying posters for their afternoon rally in downtown Pinckney.
Chanting slogans like “Light of the World Academy does not tolerate bullying,” the students received a great show of support from passing motorists.
“It was a great experience,” Lottie Moorehouse said. “Our teachers were counting, and more than 200 people honked their horns to support us.”
By focusing on the anti-bullying efforts, the students are hopeful that their school will truly remain a bully-free zone.
“Bullies only put people down to make themselves feel better,” Katelyn Hardy said. “People say it’s not possible to have a totally bully-free school, but I know we can. We’re never going to tolerate bullying at our school, and we wanted everyone to know that.”
For more on Light of the World Academy, visit lightoftheworldacademy.org.
See a short video of the rally below.
