DECA members campaign against bullying Rehgan Harris and Maddy Witzofsky choose anti-bullying focus for their DECA event HOPE SHIMONY staff writer | @hope_shimony
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ach school year, DECA members choose which event they want to compete in for the district competition. Usually, students pick the events that they have the best chance at winning, but this year, two seniors had a different goal in mind. At the start of September, seniors Rehgan Harris and Maddy Witzofsky chose to start an anti-bullying campaign for their DECA event — titled “Community Service Project” — in order to change the perceptions and image surrounding bullying. The project will raise money for KIND, an anti-bullying organization that uses donations to travel to schools and inform students on the harmful effects of bullying. “[Rehgan and I] both loved [the KIND campaign’s] message,” Witzofsky said. “We wanted to make our community service project about helping kids that are bullied because it has become such a problem.” Harris and Witzofsky will showcase their project at the DECA district competition in February. Although the seniors hope to perform well in the competition, their main goal is to shed light on and prevent the extensive bullying that can take place in high school. “This campaign is meant to spread awareness of bullying, because even if it is not
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happening to you, it is happening in Ladue and needs to be stopped,” Harris said. Harris and Witzofsky plan to raise money through penny war competitions, banner signings, fundraising at parent-teacher conferences and girls basketball games. These activities’ dates have not yet been determined. They hope that their fundraisers will get every student involved in the campaign to help raise money for their project as well as give students an opportunity to talk about any experiences they may have had with bullying. “Many students may be too afraid to speak up if they’re getting bullied,” Witzofsky said. “While the high school does a good job of having adults students can talk to, at times it may be easier for students to talk to their peers about what is going on.” Every year, Ladue requires students to complete an anonymous survey during seminar that asks whether or not they have been bullied or have ever committed an act of bullying. The survey is meant to provide the administration with more information on the prevalence of bullying among students in the high school, which is something that senior and survey participant Josh Horowitz appreciates. “Bullying unfortunately happens most places in life, including in high school,” Horowitz said. “While I do think Ladue does a pretty good job fighting against it, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.”
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