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Tell Midd-West School District: Bullying Programs Shouldn't Be Laughed Off
  1. Signatures
    851 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. Superintendent (Dr. Wesley Knapp)
  2. Created By
    Michael Jones
    Boston, MA
About this Petition Petition Letter

Last week, a school in the Midd-West School District in Middleburg, Pennsylvania held an anti-bullying assembly. But as several students commented in a local publication, the assembly was laughed off and students made jokes about bullying.

That night, a 14-year-old student in the district, who was the target of anti-gay bullying, committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a tractor-trailer.

Anti-bullying programs are commendable, and schools should be doing everything they can to make sure bullying is addressed in curriculum. But if students can just laugh off these events as frivolous, and go unpunished for their bullying, then assemblies just won't do the trick to curb violence.

Meanwhile, the Midd-West School District does not have any information on their Web site that discusses bullying or bullying prevention. This needs to change.

Send a message to the Superintendent of the Midd-West School District, letting them know that bullying programs deserve to have impact and teeth. All too many students feel unsafe at school because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or more. That tide needs to change, and it needs to start with proactive policies in school districts that take bullying very seriously.

Recent Signatures

Anti-Bullying Programs Deserve to Have a Meaningful Impact

Dear Superintendent Knapp,

Recently, a student in your school district committed suicide. That student, Brandon Bitner, was (according to his classmates) the target of anti-gay bullying.

In a report in The Daily Item, several students noted that the day before Brandon took his own life, his school had an anti-bullying assembly. Yet, instead of taking the assembly seriously, a number of students laughed it off and made jokes about bullying. That's tragic. Nothing deserves more attention in our school districts than making sure our schools are safe spaces for all students, regardless of their sexual orientation.

I urge you to step up anti-bullying efforts in the Midd-West School District. You could start by including anti-bullying information on the Midd-West Web site, and by communicating all that the school district is doing to combat bullying in the classroom.

No student should feel like their only option to escape bullying is suicide. And no student or group of students should feel that it's OK to laugh off anti-bullying assemblies. The consequences of not taking bullying seriously are just too dire.

Thank you for your time.

[Your name]

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