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Ally Awareness Week
Schenectady HS students take stand against bullying
Students take pledge, promise to be ally to classmates
During the week of
October 18-22, Schenectady High School students are showing
their support and celebrating Allies against anti-LGBT (lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender) language, bullying and harassment
in school.
All week long,
Schenectady High School students are pledging to be an ally to
any student who is bullied or harassed for any reason. While,
national Ally Week focuses on students who are bullied because
of their sexual orientation, Pam Russell, advisor of Schenectady
High School’s Spectrum Gay/Straight Alliance Club, said
Schenectady students will bring awareness to all bullying and
pledge to stop it. “Students will take a pledge to be an ally
and be the change,” said Russell. “Whether it’s about weight,
clothing, athletic ability, gender, sexual orientation, race,
where you live, how you are transported – the kids are going to
stand up for anyone who is being bullied.”
Ally pledge tables
manned by students and faculty members are set up in the school
cafeteria during lunch periods all week. Students who agree to
be an ally will take the pledge in which he or she promises to
take a stand against bullying and harassment.
The pledge states,
“I will take a stand by….
-
not using
hurtful language or slur
-
intervening
when I feel I can
-
telling
someone who can intervene when I cannot
-
being a friend
to those who have none
-
actively
trying to make my school a safer place
The student signs
and dates the pledge card.
Posters that
encourage changing attitudes, behaviors, directions, lives and
policies hang in the school halls.
Russell is
encouraging students to help get support for two bills that will
help improve the lives of LGBT students. The Safe Schools
Improvement Act would require schools to enact policies to
prevent bullying and harassment of all students. It has been
introduced in both the House and Senate.
Russell, who is
working on forming a community youth group for teens in the
area, said that it is important to bring awareness to bullying.
“We need to bring awareness and bullying needs to stop,” she
said.
Schenectady High
School’s event runs in-sync with GLSEN’s Ally Week, the Gay,
Lesbian and Straight Education Network that came up with the
idea to encourage students to take action and celebrate the week
in school beginning in October 2005. Ally Week is part of a
larger effort to create safe schools for all students.
Learn more:
www.allyweek.org
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