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Description
Wakefield High School Project Upstanders received James B. Hunter Human Rights Award on Dec. 13, 2012. Project Upstanders is a youth group that stands against bullying and protects the rights and dignity of fellow students. More than 125 Wakefield students have undergone intensive, day-long training to learn positive pro-social skills they use to combat bullying, harassing, stereotypical and prejudicial behavior among their peers. The James B. Hunter Human Rights Awards are sponsored by the Arlington County Human Rights Commission.
A
Great
excellent
I
personally
am
very
pleased
to
present
this
award
because,
as
a
person
I
was
I
was
a
person
who
was
bullied
when
I
was
in
elementary
school
and
I
was
in
junior
high
school,
so
I
really
really
love
through
this
particular
group.
The
wakefield
project
upstanders,
is
a
community
group
that
promotes
the
idea
of
respect
dignity
and
human
rights
among
students,
faculties
and
parents.
A
The
student
leaders
use
skills
to
learn
positive
pro-social
actions
in
order
to
combat
bullying,
harassing
stereotypical
and
presidential
behaviors
among
their
peers
and
in
their
own
spheres
of
influence.
The
goal
is
to
help
more
individuals
move
from
by
standards
to
up
standards.
That
is
those
who
take
a
stand
against
discrimination
in
any
form.
These
upstanders
meet
in
small
groups
at
least
about
twice
a
month,
and
they
developed
activities
and
projects
to
raise
awareness
and
to
promote
acceptance.
In
other
words,
it
is
not
cool
to
be
mean
at
wakefield.
A
Now
this
past
year
is
the
year
2011
to
2012.
They
did
a
host
of
activities
and
to
promote
this
particular
goal.
They
did
bullying
presentations
to
all
9th
grade
students,
the
school
survey,
to
identify
how
safe
students
felt
at
wakefield
and
to
map
areas
in
the
school
where
they,
where
they
can
see
or
have
heard
that
there
was
harassing
behavior
may
occur.
A
These
maps
they
placed
in
the
school
and
in
related
information
to
the
appropriate
administrators
increase
adult
presence
in
these
so-called
hotspots
and
even
did
student
made
videos
about
acceptance
which
was
presented
at
many
forms
throughout
the
county,
as
schools
as
well.
They
did
a
classroom
intervention
and
it
had
many
awareness
activities
such
as
Valentine
up
standard
pledge
and
hand
print
posters
doing
the
present
year,
2012
to
2013
they've,
already
had
a
week
of
action
dedicated
to
promoting
awareness
of
upstanding
their
ideas.
A
Their
activities
are
varied
and
include
sidewalk
art
and
a
day
of
public
service
announcements,
each
period
with
teacher-led
discussions,
they've
trained
over
125
students,
and
they
have
more
than
70
up
standards
who
are
active,
and
some
of
these
upstanders
are
in
college.
So
they
are
going
into
college
and
promoting
this.
This
particular
mission
now
project
upstanders,
is
more
than
an
anti-bullying
campaign.
It's
a
campaign
to
ensure
that
diversity,
whether
diversity
be
race,
color,
sexual
orientation,
identity,
religion,
the
list
is
a
long
list,
is
valued
and
is
appreciated.
A
B
B
We
recognize
that
upstanders
was
a
medium
through
which
we
could
use
our
influence
to
make
a
difference
in
the
lives
of
our
classmates,
by
taking
action
to
show
our
genuine
concern
for
each
other's
well-being,
since
most
students
seem
to
tune
out
whenever
presentations
included
the
frequently
heard
subject
of
bullying.
Our
goal
was
to
create
a
very
concise
mission
statement
that
would
introduce
us
as
a
group
hoping
to
bring
about
positive
change
instead
of
one
that
was
established
to
monitor
students
and
reprimand
them.
B
I
suggested
using
the
simple
phrase
intend
kindness,
whenever
a
student
found
themselves
questioning
how
to
react
to
a
situation
in
which
they
observed
bullying.
As
long
as
their
decision
on
how
to
respond
was
built
with
the
intention
of
kindness
in
mind,
they
would
truly
embody
an
upstander
upstanders
advocate
for
working
and
growing
together
through
mistakes
and
triumphs
for
the
good
of
all
people,
therefore
receiving
this
award.
Is
it
such
a
tremendous
honor
for
wakefield
high
school?
Thank
you
very
much.
C
We'd
like
to
personally
thank
dr.
Murphy
and
our
principal
dr.
Wilmore,
who
had
the
courage
to
go
forward
with
this
early
on
in
the
very
early
planning
stages.
Upstanders,
our
individuals
have
moved
from
being
bystanders.
We
know.
Eighty
percent
of
the
individuals
who
view
harassment
and
bullying
are
bystanders
and
we
set
out
to
move
people
from
being
bystanders
to
being
up
standards.
C
Sarah
Heisey,
one
of
the
original
up
standards
in
the
first
training
very
instrumental
in
getting
our
program
moving,
and
it's
good
to
see
that
she's
gone
on
and
continues
to
work
hard
for
those
who
can't
speak
for
themselves.
We'd
like
to
thank
you
all
for
having
us
here
this
evening,
and
we
would
encourage
everyone
here,
especially
one
in
Arlington,
move
from
being
a
bystander.
The
upstander
hour-by-hour
upstanders
don't
go
out
and
seek
out
bullies,
they're
up
standards
within
their
own
peer
groups.