While much of the country was home watching game 7 of the World Series, students, parents, family members and teachers gathered in Ascension Solorsano Middle School’s multipurpose room for its first-ever Family Night on Oct. 29.
Around 200 people gathered to watch the students’ video presentations for the school’s new anti-bullying program called “Building a positive school.” The gym was decorated with over-sized puzzle pieces, decorated by the sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes with their ideas on how to snuff out bullying on campus. A committee made up of Solorsano teachers and faculty organized the event.
For six weeks, the committee met to brainstorm and organize the evening’s events. While the students organized their own presentations, the committee laid the foundation for them by giving them words like “respect,” “tolerance” and “empathy” to build their videos around.
Each of the videos reflected the students’ individuality and creativity and varied from one to the next. Some featured students holding up their posters, while others read poems or sang songs about how to combat bullying.
Others came up with skits that showed examples of bullying and how students should react when they encounter it. One class demonstrated the loneliness a new student feels by having no one to sit with at lunch and how students wouldn’t join him because they didn’t know him. The class encouraged their peers to give new students a chance and make them feel welcome on campus.
Mrs. Terry-Jo Falcon’s class made a video that showed students writing notes with encouraging messages on them and passing them out to random students to help brighten their days.
“I’m hoping that, first and foremost, it (the event) opens their eyes and it makes students aware of what’s going on around them,” Solorsano principal Maria Walker said. “I’m hoping they have more empathy and that they stand up and have a voice when they see something that’s wrong. It sounds simple, but in middle school it’s tough. That would be my dream, my ultimate dream.”
The event also featured a raffle with prizes like iPod shuffles and Kindle Fires being given away to lucky attendees. Walker said each student received a yellow flyer for the event, which was their ticket to the special raffle to encourage them to attend. All those in attendance also received red tickets for a separate raffle that gave away prizes such as Solorsano t-shirts and car stickers as well as pumpkins, board games, DVDs and more.
“I think it (the event) shows the connection we have, the positive culture we have at Solorsano and, probably most importantly, it shows it’s not just one person,” Walker said. “It’s not just two or three people (to do this), it takes the whole team of the Solorsano staff to put this on.”
The Solorsano staff also painted a tree and had all those who attended dip their thumbs in finger paint and to decorate it. The multi-colored thumbprints serve as a symbol of diversity and a representation that the school is blossoming and branching out into the community.
The success of Family Night sets the stage for Solorsano to host more events like it and get its students, their families and the school’s staff more involved with one another, Walker said. The school plans on hosting another Family Night next year and will meet to brainstorm other ideas to grow on the idea of building a positive school, she added.
“We’ve been working hard and everybody did their part. The parents did their part and I think it was a huge success,” Walker said. “We’ll go back and we’ll reflect (on the event). We’re energized and the students feed off of the staff. If the staff is energized, they’re going to get on board.”
