If you have ever wondered about youth, and the positive power they hold, you no longer have to wonder.  Everything you have ever heard is TRUE!!  Read about eleven students, and how they, through their own initiative, held a class wide event, addressing an issue that is on every educators mind.

Through application essays, eleven of our 7th and 8th grade students attended leadership training. They were asked to consider the main issues our students face, and were told they had to come up with a Step Up project.  They embraced the challenge wholeheartedly and created the Step Up- Stomp Out Bullying Project.  

The students came up with a plan and implemented it.  Here are their steps.

1. They decided to create a wikispaces for communication, since they were all on different schedules, and rarely, if ever saw each other at school. 
2. Hold a fundraiser at the upcoming parent conference night, to pay for t-shirts, materials and a guest speaker
3. Review the cd from the Southern Law Center on anti-bullying and create a student assessment survey and teacher survey
4. Administer the survey through the Health Classes and teacher mailboxes, creating a poster with the results
5. Research guest speakers, interview and choose, setting the date for the entire 8th grade class to hear the guest speaker, coordinating with the health and PE teachers. 
6. Create and STAR in an Anti Bullying PSA, to show at the Anti Bullying Rally for the entire 8th grade class
7. Create a Character Ed Lesson plan, and implementing it across the 8th grade class during homeroom, displaying the "Stomping Feet" the students in homeroom created on the bulletin board.  
8. Then..... sit back, reflect on the successes, and potential changes for next year, while eating pizza and sipping soda... Nicely done!