October: Anti Bullying Awareness Month

This October, it’s time for ORCA to bring on the blue in support of National Anti-Bullying Awareness Month. Many students here at ORCA have previously been victims of aggressive bullying, seeking refuge in online school. 

Bullying can have a lot of negative effects on one's mental, emotional and social health, according to the Dana Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to growing knowledge about neuroscience. Examples include negative thought patterns, struggles with social interaction and increases in anxiety and depression. And what about the bully themselves? Most bullies harass others because they have low self-esteem, want to secure their social rank, feel angry or jealous and many more reasons. Some bullies are shown to have childhood psychiatric disorders and are at higher risk for developing an antisocial personality disorder later on in life. 

So it’s time we raise awareness for both parties, to stop bullying in both directions. Ways you can help prevent bullying are:

• Report the incident to a teacher

• Be an upstander not a bystander; this refers to speaking up rather than let bullying events go unchallenged

• Don’t participate in bullying

Show your support for "Stomping Out Bullying" by wearing BLUE to live class Zooms and in-person events throughout the month. 

You can also show your support by entering ORCA’s sticker design contest! In late October, students will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite student sticker designs, and the winning designs will be made into actual stickers that will be available at future in-person ORCA events!  There are two ways to enter the contest:

1. Attend Hangouts at our Wilsonville facility on October 17. There will be an opportunity there to design and submit your anti-bullying/kindness sticker. Check out Field Trip Central to RSVP for the October Hangouts.

2. If you're unable to attend HS Hangouts, you can use this form to submit your sticker design digitally.

October 10, SG Stomp Out Bullying assembly led by grade-level senators and SG Exec. Board members. Await for more info on the event and time, later this month by checking the principals corner on your dashboard.