New Bully Group

Do you feel alone? Always bullied?  Depressed? Do you just want to get to know your classmates better?

Accept may be the club for you to join if you answered “yes” to any of these questions. This year, the FAHS student body started a new club called Accept, which is the high school’s first anti-bullying club. The club at this point focuses on building its foundation and promoting it.

In the club, students discuss ideas and tactics on the best approaches to stop bullying. The theme of this club is breaking the cycle of bullying. The club would like people to celebrate differences instead of hating or fearing them.

Who can join?

You can!

The club is held in Mr. Walter’s room (#106) every Friday as soon as school lets out for the day. Students should be interested in joining because everyone is accepted.  The meetings are meant to help better the lives of every individual in FAHS.

The club is confident they will be around next year and many years to come.

“Originally this club began as a thought I had after viewing multiple videos of people sending condolences to a 14-year-old boy, Jamey Rodemeyer, who was one of thousands that committed suicide due to bullying,” President and founder Tanisha Rodriguez said.  “I felt that bullying has gone far enough, and somebody needed to take action. The following day, I met with Chelsey Schweitzer, VicePpresident, and spoke to her about doing something to assure this would never happen again. From there, we began forming a plan to help victims of bullying and the bully himself or herself. We began receiving a lot of positive feedback from different students and faculty, which helped boost Accept. “

The club has been very productive since its approval by the school board. Not only has it established its own rules; they have done volunteer work, ordered t-shirts, and started spreading the word about this exciting group of students. The club hopes to create more successful events for the years to come.

The club is about changing the future, and its goals consist of helping everyone who is bullied–no matter where it occurs–and the bullies who caused the distress. They are not attempting to be the “bully police.” Instead, the club allows people to have a safe haven to recognize their problems so they can fix them.

The club has also discovered a new word: bullycide, suicide due to bullying.  Statistics state that 1 in 10 students either drops out or changes schools because of repeated-bullying offenses.

The club’s final message to everyone is that, if anyone wishes to discuss bullying in which they are involved, students are welcome to speak to one of the officers: Tanisha Rodriguez, Chelsey Schweitzer, Katie Sauger, and Kelsie Underkofler.