BeNoBull!

On May 20, 2010, twelve students from East Stroudsburg High School South identified bullying and violence as an issue in the community. As a service-learning project, in partnership with Youth Infusion, the students created a documentary to bring awareness to the many forms of bullying and its lasting effects. They addressed Sexual bullying, Peer Pressure, Physical Bullying, Racial Bullying, Verbal Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Bullying through Social Isolation/Exclusion and Bullying of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender
(GLBT) youth.

The students felt that it was important to involve parents, teens and the community in a discussion on how to stop this growing epidemic. Directly following the showing of the documentary a community forum, also coordinated by Youth Infusion, was held. The students wanted to have the forum for many reasons, but the most significant reason was the lack of solutions. They planned the opportunity to not only listen to the questions being asked but to also answer the many questions posed to them by the audience. They had a chance to
hear stories about ‘real life’ bullying incidents and offered solutions on how to handle possible bullying situations.

Under the direction of Art Teacher, Michelle Christopher, Youth Infusion’s Michael Jones worked with East Stroudsburg High School South’s Art Club to create artworks that accompanied the bullying types found in the documentary. The students were challenged to create realistic examples that manifest change for bullying types. The artwork was displayed for all to see.

Students from Urban Mountain Voices, a youth literary arts program, also performed.  Approximately 200 people attended the event.

The documentary team was invited to present their film and project to over 500 students in Monroe County. They presented to 7th grade students from J.T. Lambert Intermediate School and Pleasant Valley Intermediate School. The students also created brochures with resources and contact numbers available for anyone who wanted help, is being bullied or knows someone who is being bullied.