Community and schools provide overwhelming response to bullying prevention campaign

Special to Leader-Press

“Stomp Out Bullying” is the message that runs across the entire wall down the hallway at House Creek Elementary with many foot steps to encourage students to be kind, reach out, and speak up for themselves and their fellow students if bullying occurs.

All CCISD schools and more than a dozen businesses blanketed their locations in orange for the month of October which is Bullying Prevention Month. Preteen Miss Five Hills Dorianna Gilbert, an S. C. Lee seventh grader, introduced the Paint Your School/City Orange Campaign to make a very visible statement that bullying is not tolerated in Copperas Cove.

“I don’t want people to think that they don’t matter in the world,” Gilbert said. “With all that everyone is going through nowadays, they need to know that there are people who care.”

The Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty served as the judges, splitting into two separate teams with one team judging the schools and the other team judging the businesses because so many had signed up to participate in the contest.

All three branches of First National Bank Texas in Copperas Cove seized the opportunity to join the community effort.

“The team definitely loved being a part of this,” said Ashley Strickland, banking center manager of the location inside Walmart. “My team and I all stand against bullies and are proud to show it to the community.”

Copperas Cove ISD has a zero-tolerance on bullying. Students and families may anonymously report bullying through the school district’s website at www.ccisd.com as well as the STOPit app that students and parents download to their electronic devices.

Both students and staff were excited to decorate their schools orange, and staff members also used the contest as another opportunity to talk with students about bullying.

“I could not wait for (the judges) to see my hallway,” said Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary teacher, Holly Prax. “It's all decked out in orange and is such a beautiful sight for such a great cause. We've had lots of discussions with students as we kicked off our anti-bullying awareness campaign.”

Both the school winner and the business winner will receive a $100 cash prize and bragging rights in the community. Gilbert raised the money for the awards.

“I understand that bullying is a hard topic to talk about, but I wanted to make it where we can all come together and talk about it but also make it fun,” Gilbert said.

The winner of the school decorating contest will be honored at the CCISD Board of Trustees meeting and the business winner will be honored at the October Copperas Cove City Council Workshop meeting. Both meetings are held on Oct. 19.