Stemming from Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Be the Change (BTC) is a new campaign created by leaders at CHS, including Principal Joan Benz, assistant principal Doreen Brandes, SGA sponsor Scott Selman, SGA officers, and art teacher Paul Dermont. 

According to Brandes, the purpose of this program is to raise awareness of the consequences of bullying and teach the CHS community tolerance and acceptance. 

“The goal is to get our students to think a little bit more and learn that everyone’s different,” Selman said.  

According to Selman, the CHS anti-bullying campaign began about three years ago when students came to faculty complaining about the current bully situation and wanting to make a change. 

“Another goal is to put [control] back into student’s hands and make them a catalyst for change,” Selman said.

Various anti-bullying videos will be made throughout the upcoming school year, similar to the teaser video played on the first day of school.

“The goal with the video was to put a face with the movement— class officers, sports captains— the people that everyone looks up to at school,” Selman said.  “If we can get students to be the leading force behind this, then maybe we can get the climate to change at CHS.” 

The anti-bullying campaign has produced mixed results among the school community.

Math teacher Alvin Figer has noticed less bullying in his classes, which he partially attributes to the campaign at CHS. 

“I feel that Be the Change is a good way to get the message out there to CHS students that bullying is 100 percent unacceptable and unnecessary,” senior Nikki Jordan said.  “The campaign is necessary to spread awareness of different kinds of bullying and how you may not even know you’re bullying someone.”

However, not all students agree.  Many feel that bullying is not a serious issue at CHS and that the administration should focus more on other issues.

“I really don’t think Be the Change is necessary,” senior Rishi Patel said.  “I feel like bullying isn’t really bad at all at CHS.”  

Additionally, some students feel that the BTC program is negatively affecting CHS.

“Churchill puts way too much emphasis on the very minor issue of bullying in this school,” senior Andy Pejman said.  “I know bullying may be a major problem in many schools but in Churchill there is little to no bullying and [the] media relentlessly pesters us students on this topic.  It is unknown how many students are emotionally upset from this.” 

Either way, the administration is working with teachers and students to make a change in the school.  According to Selman, a major start to this was through the wristbands distributed to students the first week of school.

“People may laugh at them or choose not to wear them,” Selman said.  “ But if it is one more way to connect with one more student, then it is worth it.”

It’s easy to laugh and write off the Be the Change campaign, but whether you admit it or not, everyone bullies someone at one point. Whether it’s whispering behind someone’s back about their clothes, mocking someone silently in class or vandalizing someone’s car—it’s a cycle CHS students are well-accustomed to. But it can lead to consequences. Consequences we don’t think of, consequences we don’t necessarily see.

According to world-renowned triathlete Jeremy Newman, who spoke to CHS students Sept. 21 during lunch, those who bully know deep inside when they bully that what they’re doing is just mean. He’s done it; he’s felt it. But he knows they’ll do it anyway.

“Listening to what you’re feeling is the most important thing,” Newman said. “When you do good, you feel good. Inside, when [you] bully, you know you don’t feel good.”

Newman, born and raised in New York City, suffered a traumatic childhood filled with abuse and ridicule. After losing an alcoholic father to suicide, his mother remarried another alcoholic who physically abused him, and before he was 10 years old he was sexually abused by a family friend.

According to Newman, he had no friends and was bullied so badly that no one would talk to him out of fear of getting bullied. His senior year of high school, however, he had trained in martial arts and tried to stick up for kids who were picked on. However, he admits he bullied some kids too, as part of a cycle which is common with most bullied kids.

After graduating, he became a personal trainer and experienced success that not only went to his head but made him dangerously reckless. He worked at nightclubs and bought a motorcycle and violated so many laws with a suspended license that warrants were out for his arrest, and “policemen knew the sound of [his] motorcycle.” He amassed enough violations that he had to escape to California—where he continued to violate more laws. At one point, he engaged in a 45-minute police chase in which he was smuggling an unlicensed loaded weapon. It ultimately led to a 56-day sentence in a county jail for evading arrest, which post-OJ Simpson was a big deal, according to Newman.

Because of his actions, Newman cannot vote, work with children or work for the government, consequences he hadn’t foreseen.

After getting out on probation, Newman then found a new hobby: skydiving. With a friend, he jumped out of a plane 30,000 feet high and, in his reckless daze, decided to compete to see who could get to the ground faster. He ended up entirely closing his canopy and didn’t pull out the reserve sheet because, according to him, it would have been a weakness, a feeling of being “ostracized as a child [that] came back to him”—a feeling that stemmed from years of resentment built up from when he was in school and felt isolated.

He hit the ground at 100 mph and saw white. Newman ruptured his aorta in three places, his heart stopped, and he had to undergo major surgery which killed the nerves in his legs, paralyzing him from the waist down. He was never expected to eat or breathe on his own again. Instead, he has been in nine wheelchair world championships over 13 years for swimming, biking and running. He is also a public speaker and has travelled the world.

“I live this extraordinary life,” Newman said. “Nothing is a stop—only [an] obstacle.”

Newman supports the BTC campaign and stands for something we all know but conveniently neglect. We are capable of anything and can make things easier on ourselves and others. Students give into peer pressure under the excuse that Potomac is fake and judgmental, but Newman came back from a near-death experience to be on top of the world. What’s our excuse? Why can’t we stop being cynical jerks? Nobody gets slammed into lockers, but everyone thinks it’s acceptable to laugh at the kid who’s different, and everyone complains about a reputation we brought on ourselves.

“Anything we want is possible, only we stop ourselves,” Newman said. “Be the change is true. You can change your life into anything.”

Newman says one of the best experiences of his life came at his 10-year high school reunion. A student he didn’t even remember came up to him and thanked him for sincerely sticking up for him one day when was being bullied.

“It feels so good,” Newman said. “These are powerful lessons.”

As students, we have so much power. Power to just smile at someone, or say hi, or power to just not give in and make a rude gesture or remark. Newman, after all he suffered, wouldn’t change anything that happened to him—it only made him stronger. But he would change one thing.

“I would only change the pain I caused other people,” Newman said.

The video showed students repeating the campaign’s catchphrase, “Be the Change” and suggested that students be the first to change their abusive habits However, many CHS students remain cynical about the efforts of the new campaign, as well as the problems it seems to address.

“I think they’re going towards a good cause,” junior Jordan Li said. “[But] it’s too cliche. It’s too out there and no one cares. Bullying is so hyped up. It’s not bullying. It’s teasing. Suicide is not what’s going to happen.”

Is bullying a problem?

According to others students, bullying is not a significant or even noticeable problem at CHS and the goals of the campaign are too vague to make any difference. They believe that the policy will do little to affect a problem that seems non-existent.

“I think it’s just not going to change anything,” Adam* said. “[Bullying] is not really a problem, it’s just joking around unless the other person feels threatened.”

However, more investigation into the subject of bullying at CHS uncovered opinions, stories and voices that most students are probably unaware of.

“I know people who have been victims of bullying, including myself,” Kevin* said. “I think students should take this message and actually do something about bullying if they see it, but the reality is that most people won’t.”

What condones bullying?

Although classic interpretations of bullying include the more elementary examples of swirlies, wedgies and obnoxious nicknames, high school students have changed bullying techniques over time to those of a more subtle and vicious nature.

We’ve all seen it happen. If one student in a class happens to be easily annoyed or simply different in any way, it is often seen as entertaining if another student decides to exploit those differences in any way possible. The teachers may roll their eyes and other students may laugh, but any kind of repeated and unwanted behavior, especially on those who tend to have a strong reaction, is bullying, and can carry serious consequences.

According to Kevin, bullying is not as black and white as most people would assume or as most campaigns seem to portray. Every incident of harassing behavior adds up until the victim is forced to some kind of breaking point.

Sometimes this buildup can not only result in harm to the bullied individual, but to others as well.

According to a 2000 U.S. Secret Service analysis of 37 premeditated school shootings, bullying, which some of the shooters described, “in terms that approached torment,” played a major role in more than two-thirds of the attacks.

“My friend Jack* is easily provoked,” said Kevin. “One time we were walking in the hall, and a group of guys kept calling his name until he said, ‘What?’, until he got mad. But bullying adds up, it’s progressive, people hold grudges and it happens over time.”

According to a pbskids.org article on bullying, bullies generally pick on students who are different in some way or get anxious or upset very easily

Bullying at CHS can also be more direct.

“I have participat[ed] in making fun of other kids,” Li said. “Everyone gets picked on now and then. I’m sorry, but [the campaign] is too dramatic. I feel to a certain point, kids need to stop taking things to heart.”

Because bullying is often referred to as teasing or joking, it can be hard to identify where the line is drawn with regard to certain certain comments and behaviors.

According to Principal Joan Benz, the perception of the person to whom the comments were made determines whether it is bullying. If the victim perceives some behaviors as bullying, then it is bullying and should be stopped.

“Sometimes students say they were playing, teasing,” Dr. Benz said. “The teasing thing does not fly.”

Who is Responsible?

The responsibility of preventing bullying never stops at the student level. Often teachers need to step in and recognize when a student is being harassed by others in a classroom.

“[Science teacher Jodi] Boppana was the first one to step in and prevent it,” Jack* said. “One day we had a substitute teacher and people started throwing erasers at me. [Boppana] heard about it from the substitute, and the next day she stopped the entire class and made them explain what had been going on.”

According to Jack, the new campaign has good intentions, but might be too vague to be effective. The promotional video didn’t specify what kind of change they were aiming for, for example,

The campaign neglects to point out, for example, the various types of bullying. Students may not be directly involved in an abusive situation, but instead awkwardly laugh and ignore the situation until it goes away.

According to sophomore Alena Garcia it is also up to students to recognize harassment and intervene by telling a teacher when they see it, even when the harasser is their friend or one of their peers.

Everyone knows that hitting, stealing lunches and personal insults are out of line, so the campaign might be more enlightening to CHS students if it instructed them on how to prevent bullying and how to communicate to those who have been bullied.

“[Other students] should ask [bullied students] if they need anything and see if they’re ok,” Garcia said.

In order to have a healthy school environment, no student should feel alienated, excluded, or consistently picked on.

But when asked about the damaging effect on his reputation–say, what people would think at a high school reunion ten years from now, Li hopes it wouldn’t have a long term effect.

“If anything, I did it to be funny, but not the point where people think I’m a mean person,” Li said. “I’m joking around. I could be friends with them the next day.”

Therefore it’s up to CHS students to change their attitude of indifference and get involved in the effort to prevent bullying, as well as heal the distrust and hurt between students that bullying has caused.

“You feel like you can’t talk to anyone,” Kevin said. “Knowing that one person cares helps.”

However, what seems to be great success for the overtly sensational “Be The Change” campaign (and the CHS administration and SGA who spend a great deal of resources sponsoring it) is actually not helping the bullying problem at all. In fact, all the action that is being taken in the name of eliminating bullies is worsening the current problem at our school.

According to assistant principal Doreen Brandes, the number of reported bullying incidents is increasing. With a 20 percent increase of bullying complaints between the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, the administration more urgently wants students to recognize that “they are the power-agents” in identifying and stopping bullies.

Yet, increased effort from the school and SGA will do nothing to quell the rise of bullying in CHS. To understand why, we must look at the supposed solution a bit closer. If one dwells on the word “bully,” classic Hollywood scenes of school fights and the star quarterback beating up the nerd for his milk money immediately come to mind. A bully is defined in our culture today as someone who lives to terrorize others in a school setting.

Contrary to what the many bullying posters around the school imply, the traditional Hollywood bully does not exist at CHS. What does exist here, along with every other high school in the world, is teasing.

Obviously, it is not the goal of ending bullying that is flawed, but rather, how the message is presented that confuses the school. According to Brandes, the program was started three years ago when a group of students recognized how hurtful teasing is and decided to raise awareness about the issue. Simply to make the program sound a bit more worthwhile than the “anti-teasing” campaign, they dubbed it the “anti-bullying” campaign.

The “anti-bullying” program has worked perfectly but for one problem: students are keeping their eyes peeled for exactly what the administration tells them to prevent: bullying, while the real problem is overlooked.

The next time Johnny asks you to “Be the Change,” realize the sad irony of the situation. While both you and Johnny have the self-righteousness to declare that you never have nor ever will bully someone, all of us have teased and will tease people unintentionally. The administration is not trying to control bullying, but mean remarks that can hurt someone’s feelings. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior, though regrettable, cannot be avoided no matter how many “Be the Change” bracelets are sold.

The administration’s actions at the beginning of the school year perfectly epitomize how it does not understand how to effectively raise awareness about an issue. The “Be the Change” video did not address the real problem. Instead of focusing on how easy it is to unknowingly bully someone, the video’s sole purpose was to put a face to the saying by having a number of people (mostly SGA members and CHS athletes) ask students to “be the change.” Not only is this elitist, but it assumes that these more popular people do not tease others, which is simply not the case.

In its efforts to reconcile society’s monsters, the administration has created a monster of its own; a monster, it will soon find, that will only expand the more the school aims to lessen it. As long as the administration uses the term “bully,” students will be scouring the school to find the ever-elusive jerk that shoves kids in lockers, while the kid that feels left out of a group will continue to suffer at the hands of misunderstanding friends.

If the administration and SGA truly want to purge CHS of the flaw that every school shares and that students everywhere have to deal with, it should call it for what it really is, the “anti-teasing” campaign. Otherwise the school is wasting resources that could be better spent on doing good in the community.

However, if the status quo is not challenged soon, the complaints will continue to increase, and the administration will undoubtedly hype up the bully issue even more in response. More time and resources will be consumed and all that is to be gained is a school frantically trying to bite its own tail.

The CHS anti-bullying campaign that started at the beginning of this school year has been combating a wave of cyberbullying reports as well as the in-school taunting that prompted the creation of the anti-bullying committee in the first place. With the use of cell phones, Facebook, and e-mail, students now have more ways to pick on their fellow classmates, affecting victims at school, home and even work. 

“Physical bullying, emotional bullying and cyberbullying initiated the bullying committee,” assistant principal Doreen Brandes said. “It’s important [that we help] because what you do at home impacts you at school.” 

According to Brandes, in a survey conducted by CHS last year that assessed student’s comfort in school, students made an extra effort to comment that cyberbullying was a problem. The anti-bullying campaign was then created to help battle this ever-growing issue. A follow-up survey will be done in the spring of 2010 to see if the campaign’s efforts have paid off. 

Many students who are victims of cyberbullying can be depressed and not want to go to school at all. 

“Bullies think that they are just teasing,” Principal Joan Benz said. “However, the definition of bullying lies with the victim.” 

According to Paul Dermont, a member of the anti-bullying committee, cyberbullying is appealing to bullies because they do not have to physically confront anyone, and they can hurt people without facing them while remaining in the comfort of their own home.

It is especially hard to catch bullies who operate through the web and text messages because they often choose not to identify themselves. However, the bullying committee takes reports of any kind seriously and, depending on the situation, chooses whether to talk to the submitter of the report, the alleged bully, the parents of the victim and bully or all parties.

Though administrators do get calls from worried parents who notice their child is more depressed or having trouble with bullies at school or at home, administrators who see troubling behavior in a student also take initiative to fix the problem. They may call them in for a conference right away, and if their behavior persists, their parents are notified.

“[The bullying committee] exists to make students feel safe at school,” Dermont said. “We will always do our best to instill a feeling of security in our students at home [as well].”

The slogan “No Place for Hate,” posted in each hallway and most classrooms, is part of a larger plan developed by a CHS Bullying Committee with the assistance of a Department of Health and Human Services program called “The ABCs of Bullying,” which offers guidelines that administration, teachers and parents should follow to handle a bullying incident.

“Bullying can be verbal, physical, ostracizing or cyber,” assistant principal Doreen Brandes said.  “Any belittling is against the rules.”

According to Brandes, the plan has a “three-pronged approach,” which includes efforts from staff, students and parents to prevent bullying. 

To emphasize the student “prong,” another committee that will allow interested students to join is scheduled to have its first meeting Sept. 24.  The hopes for this committee are to stop the bullying as it happens and to add fresh ideas to the plan already set in place.

Many students see the value in the new push to eliminate bullying in school and think the numerous advertisements  serve their purpose.

“I think this new [initiative] seems really useful and productive,” sophomore Robert Gutierrez said.  “I think if kids [listen to] the initiative to be nice, everything will be better.”

Although some other students do not feel there was ever a major bullying problem to warrant this new initiative, they are generally pleased CHS is taking a strong stand against it.

“[There wasn’t a big problem], but this initiative will help because kids will try harder to stop [the bullying] and be more aware [of its presence],” junior Priscilla Wu said.

According to Brandes, the ultimate goal of the initiative is to raise awareness to the point where bullying stops.  Her committee anticipates broadening the program’s possibilities by developing it throughout the cluster and bringing it to middle and elementary schools.

Brandes also says that bullying goes beyond the standard stereotypes, and that all kinds are equally reprehensible.

“We have a firm belief in this school that instruction is number one,” Brandes said. “Everyone should feel engaged in learning and enjoy the school, but if someone is being bothered, they can’t learn.”