South Pacific Academy joins the globe in raising awareness against bullying

by Samoa News

South Pacific Academy joins the globe in raising awareness against bullying
South Pacific Academy has joined the globe in raising awareness against bullying on the first Monday of October each year. This year they are wearing blue shirts, and decided to also hold a wave in front of their school yesterday morning.
More than 200 students participated along with staff and faculty. One of the teachers, Anneliese Sword, told Samoa News in a brief interview that this is their way of acknowledging that bullying is a problem in American Samoa. Ms. Sword, who’s a former Miss American Samoa, said they decided to join with the other schools across America to stomp out bullying because it’s a problem in American Samoa.
She said it’s a problem in SPA and it’s something that the school has been working to prevent. Sword said they believe that raising awareness will shine some light on this problem that happens at every school in the territory. “We believe it’s a good cause, and we participated because it’s a problem in other schools too, and we wanted to campaign against bullying.”
According to the website, www.stompoutbullying.org, this initiative to “wear a blue shirt” was established as the signature program of Love Our Children USA in 2003. Its founder recognized a critical need to address the issue of bullying and cyber bullying. They created STOMP Out Bullying in 2005 and today it is the leading national bullying and cyber bullying prevention organization for kids and teens in the U.S. According to the stomp out bullying website their main focus is on reducing and preventing bullying, cyber bullying, sexting and other digital abuse, educating against homophobia, racism and hatred, decreasing school absenteeism, and deterring violence in schools, online and in communities across the country.
“It teaches effective solutions on how to respond to all forms of bullying; as well as educating kids and teens in school and online, providing help for those in need and at risk of suicide, raising awareness, peer mentoring programs in schools, public service announcements by noted celebrities, and social media campaigns,” the website says.
“An additional focus educates parents on how to keep their children safe and responsible online. Stomp out Bullying says no to victimization, no to anti-bullying legislation that does not work and no to the hate and intolerance of others.
“We do say yes to choosing kindness, yes to teaching empathy, yes to accepting others no matter what they look like, their race, their beliefs, or their sexual orientation or gender, and YES to becoming responsible and kind digital citizens.”