student spotlight

No Vice Here

Meet the vice president of Pickerington North’s Anti-Bullying Club

Pickerington High School North junior Collin McNatt has one goal each day: to make someone else’s day better. McNatt joined the Anti-Bullying Club due to personal experiences and is now helping lead the way as vice president. During school days at 8 a.m., McNatt and the club settle into a meeting to discuss ways to help the student body, such as posting positive notes in the locker rooms. “At the end of the day we’re just trying to impact lives and just better the community as a whole,” says McNatt. “We strive to be great and we always try to make someone’s day better. We’ve come a long way.”

The club began two years ago and its day-to-day projects are vital to helping students. Its overarching mission is even greater: to help enhance the school culture by adjusting the attitude and giving students an inclusive and safe space to learn.

“We wanted to bring awareness as to what bullying is and what to do about it,” says Melissa Ellwanger, club advisor and PHSN teacher. “It’s more about standing up when you see it and getting help there right away instead of being passive observers.”

The club is becoming a powerful resource and has big aspirations for the coming months. This fall, it plans to open the conversation about suicide prevention. It’s also in the process of creating online chats where students can report bullying anonymously.

“Mrs. Ellwanger and all my friends in the club have helped me out to become a better person. This is the reason why I’m here today,” says McNatt. “Life is hard enough. Why make it harder on each other? We can build each other up every day.” Each member of the group has a piece of orange fabric tied to their backpacks, which makes them easy to spot if someone needs a friend to talk to.

According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, more than half of bullying situations stop when a peer inter

Members of the Anti-Bullying Club at Pickerington High School North

venes on behalf of the student being bullied. This makes the club’s mission even more important.

“I feel like a lot of people are afraid to speak up. I think they shouldn’t be, but you don’t know what that person is feeling,” he says. “At the same time, I feel like our school should be able to speak up more and not be afraid to tell the person what they’re doing is wrong.”

The club also makes trips to other schools to speak with younger students about the effects of bullying and being a bystander. The students are broken into groups and bond with each other by playing games. At the end of the rally, they each sign the bullying pledge. By signing this pledge students agree to treat others respectfully, try to include those who are left out and help those who are being bullied.

Those involved in the club plan to recreate the rallies again this year.

“Last year we went to Toll Gate Middle School and Mrs. Jackson, the principal there, said that was the best the kids had behaved the entire school year,” McNatt says.

McNatt plans to continue his work with the club next year and building the anti-bullying campaign at PHSN.

“We need people that are going to stand up and protect each other,” he says. “It’s like family. We have each others’ back and our job is to support and care for each other and make this school a better place.”

Face the Facts and the Bully W ith the rise of social media and an increasing connected world, bullying has new meanings and can be harder than ever to escape – even if we’re quarantined because of COVID-19. Bullying is hurtful and can affect students’ school performance due to mental and emotional stress. DoSomething, a notfor-profit online resource for young people and social change, shows a direct effect between bullying and educational experience. • In the U.S., one in five students ages 12-18 has been bullied during the school year. • Approximately 160,000 teens have skipped school because of bullying. • Students who reported that they were frequently bullied scored lower in reading, mathematics and science than their peers who reported that they were never or rarely bullied. • Over half of students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied believed their bullies had the ability to influence what other students thought of them. • Forty-two percent of students who reported being bullied at school indicated that the bullying was related to at least one of the following characteristics: physical appearance, race, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.

Parents, school staff and community members can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment and creating a bullying prevention strategy, like PHSN’s Anti-Bullying Club.