October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and this year Riverton and Lyseth elementary schools stood as bright examples against bullying on Unity Day, Wednesday, Oct. 25.
This is Lyseth’s third consecutive year participating in Unity Day, where schools, communities and businesses display orange to show support against bullying. Riverton also planned a schoolwide event around the day.
“The Riverton School community will come together to send one large orange message of support, hope and unity to show that we are together against bullying and united in kindness, acceptance and inclusion,” said Riverton Principal Ann Hanna.
All students, faculty and staff were invited to wear orange that day, and students made an anti-bullying pledge during the morning announcements. In the classroom, students wrote messages of kindness on orange strips of paper that were chained together. Students linked their classes together into a single orange chain running throughout the hallways at Riverton, visually unifying the entire school in kindness and against bullying.
In the lead up to Unity Day, fifth-grade students at Lyseth each wrote a letter to a business, school or media source in the community to spread the word about Unity Day and ask for their participation. Students then created posters to display in the school or at those businesses that agreed to participate. The students also held presentations for their fellow students about Unity Day, culminating in an anti-bullying pledge that all students were encouraged to sign.
On Unity Day itself, all members of Lyseth’s community were encouraged to wear orange. Fifth-grade students created face-painting artwork representing unity and support during recess. The day closed with a photo of the entire 5th grade class dressed in orange in a Unity Day display.