Did you know that Turner School District has a Bullying Prevention Committee? The committee meets throughout the school year and is made up of parents and staff members. Typically, they select a school assembly for Bullying Prevention Month in October. This year, however, they decided to try something different – they opted to participate in the Challenge Day program, and those who participated said it made an impact on them.

First established in 1987, Challenge Day leads a group of students, staff, and parents through programming meant to increase self-esteem, shift dangerous peer pressure to positive peer support, and eliminate the acceptability of teasing and violence.

While the all-day program is limited to a group of select participants, the intent of the program is to empower them to carry the themes and message of the program back to their school.

Prior to Challenge Day, district staff met with the program facilitators to give them insight into the specific struggles we experience in our schools.

Counselors mentioned that social media bullying is a main concern. This pre-meeting allowed the facilitators to be intentional with the time they had with our students.

The program took place at Turner Middle School and included one hundred students, a mix of 7th and 8th graders as well as twenty-five Link Crew leaders from Turner High School. All student participants had parent/guardian permission to participate. Additionally, there were twenty-five adults, which included school staff and district parents.

The morning session focused on helping students get to know one another and themselves. Then in the afternoon, the activities helped students build empathy for others, especially those who are different than them or are going through problems that may not be evident to those on the outside.

Participants even had the opportunity to write letters to people who they may have hurt in the past – and some chose to read them aloud.

“This program humanized everyone, child and adult alike, and broadened understanding, connection, compassion and empathy for one another. We are more than our appearance and behaviors,” said district parent Sandy Diaz.

Diaz also appreciated that the program taught important skills that participants were able to practice, like mindfulness, breathing, being aware of your emotions, and active listening

Hattori, an 11th grade student felt that the program was impactful. “I learned that people’s lives might be very different or a lot similar to ours, and what we see on the outside isn’t always the full story. It reminded me how important it is to really understand what others are going through.”

The day was emotional, but the feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you to our Bullying Prevention Committee for funding and planning this impactful program. We look forward to seeing how the participants bring the message of the program to the rest of their school community.