For Immediate Release

Monday, Oct. 30, 2017

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Melrose’s Winthrop Elementary School Shows Support for National Bullying Prevention Month

Students and School Members Participated in Unity Day to Raise Awareness of Bullying Prevention

MELROSE — Superintendent Cyndy Taymore is pleased to report that Winthrop Elementary School students and school members showed their support for National Bullying Prevention Month by participating in Unity Day.

Held during the month of October, National Bullying Prevention Month is a nationwide campaign founded in 2006 by the PACER Center’s National Bullying Prevention Center. The campaign aims to unite people around the world in an effort to educate and raise awareness around bullying prevention. Unity Day, the campaign’s signature event, encourages individuals and communities to wear or display orange in support of students who have been bullied.  

In honor of Unity Day, Winthrop Elementary School students and school members dressed in orange and participated in Project Connect, where they created a school-wide paper chain to visually represent and promote kindness, acceptance and coming together for a common cause.  To build the chain, each student was given a strip of orange paper and asked to write or draw ways they can show kindness or stand up to bullying. The orange strips of paper were then attached in a chain to join classes and grades and show the school’s solidarity against bullying.

“We’re extremely proud of our students and their efforts to stand up to bullying,” Superintendent Taymore said. “Our chain serves as a reminder that our students and community support one another and are committed to putting an end to bullying.”

For more information about National Bullying Prevention Month, Unity Day and Project Connect, visit PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center’s website.

About PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center

Founded in 2006, PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center actively leads social change, so that bullying is no longer considered an accepted childhood rite of passage. PACER provides innovative resources for students, parents, educators, and others, and recognizes bullying as a serious community issue that impacts education, physical and emotional health, and the safety and well-being of students.

How does PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center help?

• Promotes a shared conversation and response to bullying in which everyone works together responsibly and collaboratively to create safe environments for students
• Inspires entire communities to get involved with social change and promoting kindness, acceptance, and inclusion
• Offers classroom activities, toolkits, and lesson plans for educators
• Provides informative guides for parents to understand the dynamics of bullying, help their children through bullying situations, and learn how to communicate with school staff
• Educates students with age-appropriate resources and information to manage bullying situations, be supportive of their peers, and take action to prevent bullying in their school, community, and online
• Creates school-wide opportunities to address bullying, including National Bullying Prevention Month in October and Unity Day, initiatives both founded by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center

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