SeDoMoCha marks No Name Calling Week

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — From Jan. 18-22, the SeDoMoCha School joined other institutions and organizations across the U.S. by observing No Name Calling Week with activities to focus on the problems of students calling their peers hurtful names and provide educators with the tools and inspirations to launch an ongoing dialogue about ways to eliminate the problem.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

NO NAME CALLING WEEK BUTTONS — SeDoMoCha Middle School grade 7-8 homerooms, as well as elementary classrooms, created No Name Calling Week “buttons” as one of the activities for the national observance on Jan. 18-22. No Name Calling Week activities included another poster contest for grades 5-5, four days of wearing different types of clothing and the middle school Civil Rights Team’s annual dance on Friday evening.

SeDoMoCha Middle School Guidance Counselor Jennifer Towle said this year’s No Name Calling Week theme is, “Don’t let anyone dim your light, you can shine bright.” She said the middle school Civil Rights Team — which has a mission of increasing student safety and reducing incidents of bias-motivated harassment and violence in school — hosted its annual dance and largest single fundraiser on the evening of Friday, Jan. 22 with attendees encouraged to wear glow in the dark and neon attire.

Towle has been involved in No Name Calling Week at the SeDoMoCha School for a half decade, and she said every other year one of the activities is a poster contest. “We have changed it up a little bit, fifth- and sixth-graders do a poster and the winners, their homeroom gets a party. The fifth- and sixth-graders they especially get excited about contests and things,” she said, as these younger middle school pupils create No Name Calling Week posters on their own or in small groups.

Grade 7-8 homerooms are creating what called Towle called a “button” or a large round sheet of paper decorated for the week. “We have been working on them for a few weeks,” Towle said with one button featuring each students’ name on the back of a sports jersey around the words “Defend no name calling” and another with “erase name calling” and students drawing erasers and pencils. The buttons will then be judged with the winning homerooms also earning a party.

“Pre-K to grade 4 as a homeroom are designing a button as well,” Towle said. She said various posters from 2016 and years past are scanned into a slideshow for students to see and posters are hung up around the building throughout the school year.

On four of the No Name Calling Week days, the Monday was the Martin Luther King Day holiday, students and staff were encouraged to wear different articles of clothing. “Tuesday was ‘kick name calling to the curb wear boots,’’’ Towle said. “Wednesday was ‘we stick together,’ we did a twin day, Thursday was ‘I like hue’” with the various grades each having a designed color to wear. Towle said the theme for Friday was “put a lid on name calling” as hats were allowed to be worn inside.

Towle said 25 students between grades 5-8 make up the Civil Rights Team. She said the team meets weekly and members help their peers throughout the year. Students looking to join the Civil Rights Team need to apply and have endorsements from both a peer and a teacher as well as answering several questions.

“They sign contracts with things they have to follow,” Towle said, with the team divided evenly among the four middle school grades. “They can’t be a bystander, they can’t turn around and pretend they didn’t see it — that’s my No. 1 thing.” Towle said.

Civil Rights Team members seeing an incident can offer support to a fellow student or say something to a teacher.

“Doing what’s right is not easy,” Towle said she often tells students, encouraging them to have the courage to take a stand one way or another when seeing something they know is wrong.