Student bullying: Teen learn value of kindness
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- If you're not making a difference, you're doing nothing.
That was the message sent to hundreds of Rancho Cucamonga High School students on Tuesday during a Teen Truth Live assembly.
"Our main focus is to have students realize how important it is to tell the truth and not to hold it in," said J.C. Pohl, the emcee of the assembly.
"They have the power to be the difference at school, home and the community."
Pohl -- who admits he's a filmmaker and not a motivational speaker -- challenged students to watch and discuss bullying through film footage shot by high school students across the nation.
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The footage looks at school violence through students and their films, exploring issues like bullying and violence, drugs, body image and self-esteem.
"Nowadays, pressure is coming from so many directions and with the Internet and cell phones it's coming toward them 24 hours a day," Pohl said.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics website, in 2007, about 32 percent of 12- to 18-year-old students reported having been bullied at school during the school year and 4 percent reported having been bullied online.
The assembly precedes the school's Week of Kindness campaign that encourages students to respect and be thoughtful to their classmates.
Each day next week will be linked to an act of kindness, starting with high-five day on Tuesday. There are no classes on Monday, which is Martin Luther King Day.
"We're always going to have cliques, and I think some kids don't fit into that mold, but I think it's so simple to fix that by just smiling and knowing someone's name," said Claire Freeman, a junior who is the commissioner of student support for Associated Student Body.
Claire, 16, said high school is an important time in students' lives because it is crucial to their future.
"Having support from students on campus will allow us to grow into the people we want to become rather than trying to fit into the mold that is expected of us," she said.
Tuesday's assembly challenged students to tell the truth about themselves and what is happening in their own community.
Pohl asked students to stand if they've been punched, kicked or shoved by someone on purpose, siblings included.
Then he asked students to raise their right hand if they've had a rumor spread about them and to raise their left hand if they've ever been called a name, made a racist remark or derogatory comment.
Finally, Pohl told students to sit down if they have never done any of the above-mentioned acts.
About five students remained standing at Rancho Cucamonga High.
"Honestly, two or three of them may be joking around, but there is one or two who you can see in their eyes that they've never done any of those things," Pohl said. "And it realistically shows what goes on on campuses."
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