Since 2006, October has been known as National Bullying Prevention Month. This year during October, SHS took action to remind the community of the importance of taking a stand against bullying. 

This year, SHS promoted anti-bullying in several ways around the school. Helping the cause was the school club “Bring Change to Mind” led by freshman Katie Wells and School Counselor Margaret Tidrow.

“Bullying has been a problem for so long and I want us to be the generation to come together,” Wells said. “Like all the ‘Gen-Z’ kids to come together and be like ‘We’re not going to do that.’”

Tidrow says the point of this month isn’t to necessarily give students new information but to just remind them that if they see something, say something. 

“The bystander effect, you think someone else is going to handle it,” Tidrow said. “Be the one to do it.” 

In an effort to show SHS’s unity against bullying, the club had students sign their name on a hand-shaped piece of paper during lunch, and those pieces of paper were all hung in the hallway. 

The concept was to “take a stand, lend a hand against bullying,” and it was meant to show students who are being bullied that they are not alone and that SHS is here for them. 

“It’s pretty important to make sure everyone’s united,” Wells said.

SHS also hung posters in hallways, made a “screencastify” with the school social worker, Jorie Depalma, painted the rock outside the school orange, the color of bullying prevention, and even made an anonymous SHS bullying hotline, which is 317-789-4880.

Other hotlines for bullying include the See Something Say Something Hotline, 317-789-3905, and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 800-273-8255. 

All of these efforts were made for two underlying reasons, to let kids who are being bullied know that they are not alone, and to let kids who aren’t being bullied know that ending bullying won’t happen overnight, and that it’s a collective effort. 

“We know we can’t end all bullying with a little presentation…,” Wells said. “We just want kids to know it’s OK, and it’s a team effort with the whole world.”