400 students from Wedgeworth School in Hacienda Heights perform an anti-bullying flash mob at Puente Hills mall on Thursday.

By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

Puente Hills Mall rocked out Thursday morning, thanks to a flash mob by 400 students and staff from nearby Wedgeworth Elementary School. The Hacienda Heights school filled the center court of the local mall as curious shoppers gathered around.

Clad in their bright red T-shirts, the school danced Gangnam style as parents and patrons lined the second floor balcony to watch.

“Our students wrote the lyrics and our entire student body learned the choreography to help spread the word about bullying prevention,” explained Principal Paulina Cho.

Cho said the Hacienda La Puente Unified school has been working on a campaign to prevent bullying. Each grade level did a different project based on the theme. On Tuesday, the fourth- and fifth-graders will perform an antibullying skit that they wrote themselves.

“For the younger students, we had them outline their own silhouettes, then write in words that bullies might use,” Cho said. “Later, we had them rip their silhouettes to show the harm done by the mean words.”

But the whole school decided they wanted to spread their message to the general public. And what better place to do that than the big regional mall down the street.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s FLASHMOB.