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SALT LAKE CITY — An anti-bullying program from a school in the Jordan School District is becoming increasingly popular with elementary school kids. The outreach program has been asked to make more visits than the students can fit in their schedules.
It all started in 2012, after a seventh-grade girl at Sunset Ridge Middle School had an insulting sticky note put on her back.
Counselor Julie Scherzinger asked the school’s anti-bullying ambassadors to do something about it. She said, “If they don’t like what’s going on in the hallways, they have more power to change it than we do.”
So over a thousand students rallied by posting sticky notes of their own, saying, “Not in our school.” The notes were all over … the walls, the lockers; even the toilets had the notes on them, according to Scherzinger, spreading the message that bullying won’t be tolerated by the student body.
The students' efforts worked, too. A few days later, friends of the boy who put the note on the girl’s back turned him in. News spread quickly about what happened, and eventually the Disney Channel came to the school to have the student ambassadors talk about it.
Now, the student ambassadors involved with the program have become so popular with younger students, they’ve been asked to present it to elementary school kids.
If they don't like what's going on in the hallways, they have more power to change it than we do.
–Julie Scherzinger
“When you’re in elementary school and somebody comes and does an assembly and they’re from an older school, a junior high or high school, you just think they’re rock stars,” Scherzinger said.
This is the first year Sunset Ridge has done its outreach program, visiting eight schools during the year.
“We went to every feeder school that feeds into Sunset Ridge Middle School, which is five elementary schools," Scherzinger said. "Then we went to three more. We did eight, total.”
She said she believes initiatives like this can do a better job reaching children since they’re run by other students, and the messages aren't coming from adults, who may seem out of touch. She said kids can help other kids understand what they need to do when they see bullying.
“I think they’re afraid to take a stand because, first, they don’t want to be bullied themselves," Scherzinger said. "They don’t want the focus to change on them. Also, they don’t really know how to stand up.”
