Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public School Jan/Feb 2016 | Page 4

Students ‘Mix It Up’ to help fight bullying, make new friends

“It’s pretty cool,” said sixth grader
Kira Durbin, 11. “You get to met new
people. I’ve learned a lot. The most
interesting thing I’ve learned is what
they’ve wished for. Mckenzi (Jones)
wishes she were invisible and Cara
(Neal) wishes she had fairy wings.”

Kira said she thought the activity
would go a long way toward stopping
bullying. “You get to meet new
people, and tell them about yourself.
You might make a new friend and
they might watch out for you if you’re
ever bullied.”

Sixth grader Christin NataliGergich, 11, agrees. “I think the more
friends you have, the less chance
you’ll get bullied,” he said. “It’s
usually the kids who don’t have a lot
of friends or who have a hard time
making friends, that are the ones
getting bullied.”
This is the second year that PRMS has
participated in Mix It Up, a national
campaign
launched
by Teaching
Tolerance
more than 10
years ago.
Mckenzi Jones, 11, at left, Cara Neal, 11, and Kira Durbin, 11, get to
PRMS does
know each other during lunch on Mix It Up At Lunch Day at their school.
such a great
job, it has
The concept is simple: talk to people you don’t normally talk to.
been chosen
The impact of this simple act, however, can be profound.
as a model
Approximately 1,400 students at Porter Ridge Middle School
school for this
participated in a national anti-bullying effort called Mix It Up at Lunch
effort.
Day Tuesday (Oct. 27).

To emphasize
Counselors asked students to move outside their comfort zones by
the Mix It
connecting with someone new over lunch. When a student interacts
Up concept,
with someone from a different background, studies show this can
students were
reduce prejudice, biases and misperceptions.
Porter Ridge Middle School seventh-grade
also told to
“It gets students to interact with students across socio-economic
counselor Laura Conway hands a ticket to a
mix up their
status, regardless of popularity or grades. They sit with students that
student that tells her where to sit in the cafeteria.
wardrobe,
they wouldn’t normally talk to,” said Porter Ridge Middle seventhwearing very
grade counselor Laura Conway.
creative
clothing
choices
that
didn’t
necessarily
match.
“It encourages communications in hopes that it will foster
friendships and break down barriers to help them see that this person “It’s fun, people look crazy and it’s fun to see what people do,”
said sixth grader Nicky Viele, 12. “Doing this, no one is lonely
sitting across from them, who they normally would not have even
because they make new friends. Then if they have a friend they have
looked at, may have the same interests as they do,” Conway said.
someone to talk to.”
The school’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade counselors
PRMS counselors (Conway, Melissa Ladez (sixth grade) and Sara
organized the effort, giving s