These students want the neighborhood to know their school is no place for hate.
Students at P.S. 72 marched along E. Tremont Avenue and around their neighborhood recently, chanting “No place for hate” during the second annual anti-bully march.
The march was part of an initiative through the Anti-Defamation League. in which students are required to complete three school-wide anti-bias activities.
Students also created No Place for Hate links with colorful strips of paper, writing on them why they want their school to be a bully-free zone.
The third activity had students design themselves on foamboard faces to celebrate their differences.
Parent coordinator Veronica Brugman said the foamboard faces hanging throughout the school represent the theme that each of the children are different in their own way, and that is okay.
“The message that we are trying to send out is not only that this is no place for hate, but also that we are all the same and should be treated equally and with respect,” Brugman said.
“The march is the boost we need for that message. It gets the students excited, and it shows that we practice what we preach,” he said of the May 17 march.
Fifth grader Maria Tolone, called the walk awesome.
“Bullying is rude and it can go to different levels,” she said.
Fellow fifth grader Jocelyn Benitez called the march a good way to spread the anti-bullying message.
“I think its good for people to see us chanting no place for hate, so they can tell other kids too.”
Photo by Kirsten Sanchez
