Maple Lake students NOT bystanders to bullying    

Bullying leaves many kids feeling depressed and worthless, and in extreme cases may even lead to some taking their own lives. To combat this, social workers around the nation have created and promoted UNITY Day. UNITY Day is a day that is dedicated to promoting kindness, equality and the ending of bullying. People around the world come together to unite for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion and create a world without bullying! 

We have UNITY Day to help educate others and promote UNITY and end bullying. Members of FOR Club promote UNITY Day by competing in a poster contest.  “This year, we had six posters enter the contest. Third place went to Laney Haglin, second place went to Sydney Breimon and our first place winner was Katie Hagen,” said UNITY Day organizer Mrs. Debbie Stang. 

Second place winner of the poster contest, Eighth Grader Sydney Breimon said, “I was trying to portray how important it is to stand with movements like this and to be a good example for other students.” 

Junior Sami Hayes is another advocate for UNITY Day. She said, “UNITY Day is important to me because bullying affects a lot of people. If we work together we can help those who are being bullied.”

COVID has affected everything we do everyday.  “This year was more challenging as not all students are here everyday due to hybrid,” said Mrs. Stang.  Members of FOR Club put the UNITED ribbons on lockers towards the end of the day Tuesday, so group B could still see them as they are remote learning on actual UNITY Day.

Whether students were in the building on UNITY Day or not, FOR Club worked to make everyone aware. “The best thing about UNITY Day is seeing people come together and bring awareness. I also love seeing students’ creativity with the poster contest,” said Mrs. Stang. Creativity beats the cruelty of bullying any day!