FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — Whether it be T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps or bandanas, the color pink was prevalent last Thursday at Fort Fairfield Middle-High School as students, teachers and staff wore the color and took a stand against bullying.
International STAND UP to Bullying Day is a biannual event commemorating two Canadian teens who took a very public stance in support of a targeted student. In 2007, Travis Price and David Shepherd — seniors at Central Kings Rural High School in Cambridge, Nova Scotia — heard that a freshman was being picked on because he wore a pink polo shirt on the first day of school.
The seniors opted to go to a nearby discount store and bought 50 pink shirts to wear to school the following day. They e-mailed their classmates and encouraged them to wear one of the shirts — or something pink from home — as a way of taking a stand against bullying at their school.
Many schools’ Civil Rights teams in Maine held their own STAND UP to Bullying Week activities last week including Fort Fairfield which hosted Brandon Baldwin, schools and curriculum coordinator for the Civil Rights Team Project, which falls under the auspices of the Maine Attorney General’s Office. Civil Rights teams are student-led groups working to address bias in their school communities and make school a safe place for all.
Baldwin held presentations for both the middle and high school students.
“I want to get students thinking about an issue in a way that they haven’t thought about before. Almost any issue that you present on they’ve heard something about it before. The key is trying to personalize it, make it meaningful for them, relevant for their behaviors in their schools, and get them thinking about it,” said Baldwin. “I think most students are good people, most people are good people, but we don’t always do the right thing. The key is getting people to think about their own behaviors and challenge them. If we think about issues more, we’re more inclined to do the right thing.”
The previous night, Baldwin was a guest at a well-attended community dinner that was held at the high school cafeteria. The goal was to gather the community together for friendly discussions about how harassment and bullying affect students and what the Civil Rights team can do to improve the school’s climate. Presque Isle High School Civil Rights team members also attended the dinner.
“I’m very happy with how things are going [in Fort Fairfield]. The wonderful thing about middle level and high school students is they’ll tell you exactly what they think. They’ll even tell you during a presentation through their behavior. You can tell when they’re engaged or disengaged,” said Baldwin. “Obviously you’re never going to reach 100 percent of your students, but the majority are completely engaged, their behavior has been excellent, and it feels like they’re thinking about these issues. That’s what it’s all about.”
Rachel Elmore, Civil Rights team adviser and English teacher at FFHS, first became aware of Baldwin last fall when she attended a teacher’s training session he led.
“He had a bunch of different assembly programs that he offered for the kids. I came back and we narrowed that down to two and took it to our Civil Rights teams and they thought the STAND UP to Bullying would be good so we applied for that,” she said. “The students have been working on this week for the past two months. The purpose is getting conversations started. Issues that deal with harassment are awkward issues just by nature, so it’s getting people feeling comfortable to talk about things and say ‘This isn’t good,’ ‘This is wrong’ or ‘You’re using some language that you shouldn’t be.’”
The Civil Rights team chose each day of the week to be represented by a different color which stood for an issue related to harassment.
Students were encouraged to wear blue on Monday to draw attention to child abuse, black on Tuesday to support individuals who have been victims of clique harassment, purple on Wednesday to support victims of domestic violence, either lime green (childhood depression) or pink (STAND UP to Bullying) Thursday, and yellow on Friday for suicide prevention and awareness.
“It’s the things that stem from being bullied that are the bigger issues,” said Elmore, noting that the PIHS Civil Rights team also joined in the colors week. “For example, if somebody is bullying a kid when they’re in elementary, middle and high school, they could potentially be a child abuser when they grow up and have kids of their own. In terms of suicide, bullying and harassment can lead people to feel like they have no escape and that’s not an option we want anyone in our school to think about.
“I want the students to walk away from this with the ability to talk about things. People are social creatures. If you’re in a room with four other people, you’re probably going to do what those other people do,” she said. “Our hope is to shift the paradigm so those other people will do the right thing which will create a positive chain reaction.”
Sophomore Erin Williams, president of the FFHS Civil Rights team, said STAND UP to Bullying Week was a way “just to get people to focus on what really happens and be able to recognize it more than just let it slide.”
“I think people don’t recognize what they do a lot and that they don’t see it. It may not be offensive to them, but it might be to someone else,” she said. “We’ve been busy putting up posters to promote Bullying Week and we also read quotes over the announcements. It’s been fun and I hope people are hearing our message.”
Civil Rights team member Jayana Williams, a junior, said bullying does exist at school.
“It’s important that we do this because we do surprisingly have a lot of bullying going on in our school but nobody really ever stands up and does something,” she said. “Personally I’ve seen people making fun of special needs children and people calling other people names. When I saw it I told them to stop. I’ve always been outspoken, so I have no problem defending others.”
Sophomore Abbey Player, also a team member, said this was the first time STAND UP to Bullying Week has been observed in Fort Fairfield.
“It’s been an ongoing problem, and when Mrs. Elmore told us about the opportunity to have Mr. Baldwin come and talk to us, we thought it was a really good idea. Sometimes students don’t listen to us as much, but someone of authority they would listen to more,” said Player. “The high school students already know that bullying is wrong and you should stand up against it, but I think today got more into the depths of how people really don’t stand up, but rather watch and hope someone else stands up. I’m hoping the students will realize that maybe the person they hope will do it won’t do it and they’ll do it themselves.”
Team member Nicole Giberson, a sophomore, said the middle-high school is a good school with good staff, teachers and students.
“Our challenge is to make it even better, if not the best!” she said.
The Fort Fairfield Middle-High School teams are two of almost 200 in Maine elementary, middle level and high schools participating in the state’s Civil Rights Team Project.
In addition to Baldwin’s presentations in Fort Fairfield, he also spoke at schools in Washburn and Woodland.
