Before summer break, students at Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School took up positions on the front lines of the bullying war. Karen Smeltzer, a second-grade teacher at the school, said it’s never too early to help kids learn that their words and actions can have an impact on each other.
To launch the program, Smeltzer organized an awareness day that brought in Corona del Sol High School students to talk with her second graders.
“I think the kids really look up to the Corona students,” she said. “Sometimes, it doesn’t help to be a teacher; even though we’re outside with them on duty, they don’t tell us everything.”
For the first time ever, student members of Corona’s Unity Club came out to visit students during a special awareness day, presenting skits on bullying and asking the second graders to reflect on how they would feel if they were picked on.
Smeltzer had contacted Corona to coordinate an activity involving its students and hers. Jan O’Malley, Corona’s Unity Club sponsor, worked with Smeltzer to arrange the subsequent event.
“I thought, there has to be something to connect to here,” Smeltzer said. “The Corona students said they wanted my students to walk away with the philosophy that they don’t deal with bullies.”
During one afternoon before school let out, Unity Club members walked from the Corona campus to Kyrene del Cielo to present skits on bullying to 90 second graders. It was clear that the second graders knew the impact of negative words on peers, as they gasped with mouths open at the word “stupid” being used in the club’s first skit.
The Corona students ended their presentation on bullying by having Cielo students squeeze out tubes of toothpaste into a bowl. Then came the lesson: once words come out, it’s hard to take them back.
Melinda Vibber, another Cielo second-grade teacher, said the Cielo staff is trying to help students understand the true meaning of bullying, a word that has become cliché in media.
“I think the word bullying is overused, and kids don’t understand what impact words have on each other,” she said. “We’re trying to define that better.”
Vibber said having the Corona Unity Club leaders visit with the second graders gives them a huge motivation to act with kindness towards one another.
“They got really excited to have the Corona students come visit,” Vibber said. “That’s like college at their age, and they really look up to them.”
Cielo Principal Mike Deginan also holds “Character Café” events every month, bringing in local professionals in a variety of careers to talk with students about character and respect.
