If you're Bully Proof you're Bullet Proof.
"We might not be able to change the world, but if we can save one person from all the insecurities the world has created, we've done it."
By: Sarah & Elizabeth
By: Sarah & Elizabeth
What is this project?
-Sarah and Elizabeth
This is our AP Literature final project. Our class was given the option to make a scrap book of our year or a social justice project. Being the over achievers we are, we chose the social justice project. All we were required to do was a website and some attached social networking sites with at least 50 followers from outside the school, but we wanted to go bigger! Our original plan was to make Youtube videos and have a community involvement activity; however, this project was assigned less than three weeks ago, and with all of the preparation and time commitments it would require for all of our extravagant ideas, our work, sports, and AP course schedules would not allow it. So instead, on top of the social networking sites and website, we chose to preform a series of social experiments around our school to create a unique social justice project that our teacher and peers could directly see the results from. What were these experiments you may ask? They consisted of little pieces of papers with positivity notes posted around, and quotes to make people think deeper and beyond what society tells them to think about themselves. We posted these words of encouragement and positivity around the school in places that people would least expect it i.e. the bathroom mirror, stalls, doors, and bulletin boards around the campus. To our shock, we had an overwhelmingly explosive response on social media and within our school. Our Instagram gained over one hundred followers within the first two days (still growing), and our twitter was buzzing with re-tweets. Even though we geared our experiments at school more specifically toward targeting the female students, (This was mainly due to the fact that we aren't allowed in the men's bathrooms) we found that the male students were the ones encouraging others to take a look at our posters in the hallways. We got a lot of positive feedback and some negative, but overall people loved the fact that we were speaking up for them and saying things that needed to be said. Our posters even made a few students Snapchat stories and they led to a lot of excitement to treat others well. We have never noticed such a vivacious and welcoming environment at school as we did during those two weeks and we plan on carrying on these tools to wherever life brings us. Next we will not stop "bullyproofing" our environments and "bulletproofing" our peers through positivity.
Keep it up THS!
-Sarah & Elizabeth
Keep it up THS!
-Sarah & Elizabeth
Positivity Torn Down By Negativity
|
https://instagram.com/p/2pAZMzL-Rd/
So today as part of our project we decided to create a social experiment to test the waters and see how our school would react to quick little words of encouragement in unexpected places. This one read "Warning: Reflection in mirror may be distorted by socially constructed ideas of BEAUTY"... For the most part people responded with positive snapchat stories and questions as to where it came from and that was our mission.. But when I went into the restroom after lunch to make sure they weren't falling and all of the tape was functioning this was torn down and thrown in the trash.... Which broke my heart and compelled me to think about how that act of disregard for a good thing is like bullying.. Before you are broken you're an innocent sweet little sign that tries to make people see themselves more positively trying to spread your light onto everyone. But...when you encounter a bully they tear you down leaving you with an empty space where you once held such a happy and encouraging message for everyone to gain confidence from and leaving you with a shell, a little bit of you still taped to the mirror and the good message in your heart crumpled up and thrown into the trash like it means nothing.. Please Tomales High School pay attention to these things and the way you treat each other... That's all I have to say. |