Students get creative to help prevent bullying

Apr 26, 2011

The Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center recently honored several Wareham elementary students for winning entries its Anti-Bullying Poetry and Poster Contest. In the statewide contest for students in grades 3 through 5, Minot Forest Elementary students were awarded for six of their entries.

Poems

4th Grade Honorable Mention

Catherine Tropeano and Cecelia Chismer

Posters


5th Grade Third Place

Haylee LaCava, Alexis Cabral, Kayleigh Thompson, Jayde Gould

5th Grade Second Place

Ashley Atwood and Mya Pol

Most Creative Overall  5th Grade

Portia McDonald, Cheyanne Caccialin and Alex Scott

 

5th Grade Honorable Mention

Mikayla Arone  and Janenita Monteiro

Kaylee DeCollibus and Gabrielle McKinnon


Each grade competed within its own category. Depending on grade level, students were asked to design artwork around bullying education and prevention. All of the Minot Forest students worked for four weeks on their entries during a study skills class with teacher Christine Quimby.

"I'm very proud of the children," said Quimby. "[The contest] was a great vehicle to teach that bullying is not something we want in our schools or our community."

The entries were judged by undergraduate and graduate students at Bridgewater State University, where the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center is housed.  The program's services include school programs, conferences, workshops, consultation, and research in the areas of bullying prevention, cyberbullying education and prevention, and violence prevention.

Winning entries are now on display at Bridgewater State University in the Maxwell Library. There will be a ceremony held on May 3 at 10 a.m. in the university's John Joseph Moakley Center Auditorium to honor the winners.