Longfellow students practice tolerance, compassion

[stop bullying]

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/04/22/longfellow-students-practice-tolerance-compassion/

When students at Longfellow Magnet Middle School go to school today,
they will spend their first two hours in silence.

While they will be studying, they will not be talking. But they will
be learning.

The students will be participating in National Day of Silence, a day
devoted to standing up against the teasing and bullying of gay,
lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning people. The silence
symbolically represents all those who have been silenced because of
their sexuality.

This will be the third year the middle school in south Berkeley has
participated in the international event, according to Patricia
Saddler, the principal.

Besides not talking from 9 am to 11 am, the students will be carrying
rainbow banners. There will also be sections of each classroom
designated as “safe zones,” where GLBT students can go and know they
will be safe.

To get the students prepared for the day, Longfellow held successive
assemblies on Thursday where students spoke about the importance of
being allies to GLBT students, sang songs against intolerance, and
watched multi-media presentations.

Many of the speakers were members of Longfellow’s Gay-Straight
Alliance, which is designed “for anyone who wants our school to be a
safe or accepting place for everybody,” according to Rosina Keren, a
teacher at the school.

A young student named Tiffany stood before an audience of sixth
graders and told them how she had been shy and timid in elementary
school and was the target of teasing and bullying. Longfellow, she
said, was different. It was an accepting place that let her be
herself.

“Longfellow actually gave me love,” said Tiffany. “No one actually
teased me. So thank you.”
The statistics about the repercussions of bullying are grim, according
to slides played in the assembly. There are 100 to 200 teenage suicide
attempts made for every successful suicide. Gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgendered or questioning students are four times more likely to
kill themselves than their straight peers.

“I think it is really important we treat everyone the same and we
don’t disrespect anyone for anything,” said a student named Clara.

A student band played a song called “Secrets”, while the words
“judged,” “embarrassed,” “overwhelmed,” rejected, and “lonely,’ played
on a screen behind them.

Anita Uresti, the mother of Aubrey Uresti, a counseling intern at the
school, sewed 250 rainbow flags for the day.