“Unity Day” attempts to raise awareness on bullying through the color orange
Students sporting orange on Unity Day last Monday, which was hosted by South High’s Peace Tigers student group, in support of anti-bullying. Although many wore orange, it wasn’t necessarily because of Unity Day: “I actually didn’t know you were supposed to wear orange today, I just am.” said Luca Raffo Simões, freshman at South.
October 20, 2016
Monday was supposed to be Unity day for Minneapolis Public schools. A day to raise awareness about bullying and to wear orange to show that at South, we are against it. The Peace Tigers, a student group at South High, had a table at lunch with candy and pins to talk about bullying.
This is not the first time that the Peace Tigers had organized a Unity day. They tried to get as many people as possible to wear orange today, but there weren’t very many who did.
Luca Raffo Simões, a freshman wearing a bright orange shirt said “I actually didn’t know you were supposed to wear orange today, I just am.” Throughout the day there were many people wearing their South Apparel solely because they wanted to wear orange that day, and it just so happened that it was also the anti-bullying color.
Ella Kressel, a sophomore and Ms. Reynolds both agreed that orange was not a good color to choose because so many people wear that color everyday at south.
The Peace Tigers’ goal was to raise awareness about in school bullying, but like many people have said, wearing orange isn’t a good way to do it at our school. “I think that it’s really ineffective. Especially for an issue like that.” said Kressel.
Students at south say that we need to talk about bullying more, have speakers come in and hear about the real life experiences that people who have been bullied have faced.
“I think everyone should feel safe and comfy” said Ms. Reynolds. This is a step in the right direction but all that went on to let people know about what was going to happen on Unity day at South was a few flyers in the halls. “Nobody pays attention to flyers.”
South high administration is not doing enough to help raise awareness and prevent bullying at South. A few members of Peace Tigers said that the next step in Anti-Bullying starts with the staff whereas, a south high Administrator said they want to see what else student groups can do.
“We all need to do more to live each other in this building” said Reynolds. Maybe next year South’s Unity day will be better.
