At West Bloomfield High School (WBHS), the Upstander anti-bullying program celebrates their Upstander week. The purpose of Upstander Week is to reach out to the student body about bullying related issues. The culminating project of the Upstander program is for students to work in groups to come up with creative ways to spread the word about bullying issues. After many weeks of hard work, the students displayed their projects during Upstander Week. Grace Trivax, a freshman at WBHS and member of Upstander says, “people are doing projects that they hope will influence our community and school as a whole and move forward towards eliminating bullying.” Examples of these creative works include motivational quotes being handed out at lunches, a banner hung up in the front of the school, a workshop at the carnival, and a mural.

Hunter Griffin, a member of the group that made the mural, said that it was created for students to be able see firsthand how bullying can be defeated. Also, “we wanted to share with freshman that  is a bully-free zone and it is okay to be who you are. We can put a handprint over it, defeat the label, and live life,” says Griffin. The mural is featured in the picture above. Jason Israilov, another WBHS freshman and Upstander member said, “my project was to hand out pledges.” These pledges were handed out at lunches and were provided for students to sign and agree to help prevent bullying.

There is a lot of anti-bullying information to learn from this Upstander Week. Of all of the lessons and new ways to act towards others, Jonathon Zhang a WBHS freshman and Upstander member says, “the most important thing about Upstander is acceptance, and accepting other people for who they are.” Sophia Canella, another Upstander Freshman, said the most beneficial part of Upstander is “being able to see the types of bullying and learning ways to be an Upstander.” By learning what causes bullying through important and creative projects, Upstander can spread their anti-bullying lessons and awareness to their school and their community.