news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Students: If a classmate hands you a blue and gold pledge card asking you to “be an ally, not a bystander,” it’s because he or she wants you to help prevent and report bullying in Guilford County schools.

The pledge cards are just one strategy local high school students will use this year to make schools more inclusive of classmates with different backgrounds.

“Our responsibility is to find as many ways as possible to demonstrate positive behavior and give people an opportunity to engage in fighting discrimination and bullying,” said Susan Feit, director of the National Conference for Community and Justice of the Piedmont Triad.

Last week, the conference hosted an anti-bullying workshop for more than 60 teenagers who attended the week-long Anytown summer camp over the past two years.

Anytown is the conference’s signature program which seeks to create bonds of friendship and respect across different races, religions and socioeconomic groups.

NCCJ started offering anti-bullying workshops to student “ambassadors” in 2007 as a way to encourage action in the schools.

“These kids could be going to the movies,” Feit said. “They could be out playing basketball or listening to music with their friends. Dozens of students have decided that they want to get together and decide how to fight bigotry, racism and discrimination.”

The conference’s work is especially relevant during a time of national attention on cyberbullying and intimidation of homosexual students. Participants in Wednesday’s workshop read the stories of 10 bullied students from across the U.S. who committed suicide this year.

The students followed the exercise with discussions of what they would do in their schools.

Students from Andrews said they want to start a peer mediation program. Representatives from Western Guilford suggested scheduling multicultural nights or a Bullying Prevention Week.

Senior Amber Lowe said she would like Dudley’s predominantly black student population to mingle better with minority groups, especially at lunch.

“I think it is a big issue because there are people of other races who are intimidated to walk into the cafeteria because there is a black side and then other ethnicities on the other (side),” Lowe said.

Junior Ceara Cannon said she and other students would like to create a diversity club at Weaver Academy to complement the work being done through the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

Cannon said she faces stereotypes as an African American, even though she applied to Weaver to escape the bullying she expected at her district high school. For example, some fellow students expect her to like dancing even though she has other interests, she said.

“My middle-school experience was completely ruined and I don’t want that to carry over to high school,” said Cannon, who attended Mendenhall Middle. “Even at Weaver there’s so many stereotypical issues.”

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078, or morgan.josey@news-record.com