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GLADSTONE, Oregon (KPTV) — A Gladstone mother is making a difference in her community by standing up to bullying in a unique way.
“It started when (my son) Thomas was in second grade and he was being bullied in school,” Lindsey Anderson said. “It was really tough, I mean, you don’t want your child to go through that.”
Anderson wanted to find a way to help and turned to the internet.
“I went online, on social media, and I saw Hat Not Hate, and it drew me in and I knew I had to be part of it,” Anderson said.
Hat Not Hate is a national anti-bullying campaign that was founded a couple of years ago.
The idea is to create hand-knit hats in blue, the color of peace and solidarity, and distribute them to students in schools throughout the U.S. as a tangible reminder to stop bullying.
“I reached out to his third grade teacher and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested, is this something we could do?’ and she said, ‘That sounds great,’” Anderson said.
“It was a great way to open the conversation,” Thomas’ teacher, Patti Banka, said.
Anderson reached out to friends for help, and together they made a hat for every student in Thomas’ classroom at John Wetten Elementary in Gladstone.
On Anti-Bullying Day last fall, Banka asked each student what bullying means to them and opened a conversation about standing up for each other and when to seek help.
“We used it as an opportunity to talk about bullying, what it means, and what we can do,” Banka said.
Then, each student got to pick out their own blue hat to wear and take home.
“They were excited, they were like, ‘wow!’” Thomas said of his classmates’ reactions.
The campaign is growing. This fall, every student in the school will get a hat of their own in a big anti-bullying assembly in partnership with Hat Not Hate.
We used it as an opportunity to talk about bullying, what it means, and what we can do.
–Patti Banka, teacher
“I’m overjoyed by it, I can’t wait,” Anderson said. “…I want the kids to be aware that (bullying is) not OK, and it affects you the rest of your life.”
According to data posted at dosomething.org, bullying affects 1 in 5 students between the ages of 12-18 in the United States, but more than half of bullying situations stopped when a peer intervened.
If you’d like to get involved with the effort in Gladstone, join Anderson’s knitting group on Facebook or visit the Hat Not Hate website to learn more about the movement.
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