The sun bore down on Gorton Junior High faculty and the student body last Friday as the school hosted a daylong Anti-Bullying Relay in an effort to raise awareness of bullying. Gorton secretary Peggy Fitzsimmons, principal Jeff Taylor, student assistance counselor Amanda Slocum and Patricia St. Amant, the city’s director of family support, planned the event. Also involved in its making was Patty St. Amant and the Department of Human Services. Mayor Scott Avedisian opened the day with the event’s organizers.

Gorton students spent the school day participating in various activities and visiting stations aimed at educating them on the negative effects of bullying and the importance of reaching out, whether it be the victim or their friends.

One of the five stations was the relay track, which all students were required to walk for the cause. The Warwick Police Department and the Warwick Fire Department ran a station that exhibited canine demonstrations. The WPD also manned an obstacle course and a dunk tank. In the school auditorium, Student assistance counselor Amanda Slocum held a viewing of a film that displayed anti-bullying themes. In the gymnasium, activities were held that aimed at teaching the students teamwork and problem-solving strategies. These activities were funded in part by student assistance counseling and the PTO.

The Feinstein Foundation provided lunch for the event.

Above all, students seemed partial to the dunk tank, where seventh and eighth graders had the rare and golden opportunity to soak their teachers while raising money for anti-bullying causes.

Although much of the support for the event came from the Warwick Youth Program and Advisory and Prevention Task Force, Gorton Principal Jeff Taylor was grateful and quick to appreciate everyone involved, including everyone from the Warwick Police and Fire Departments to the crossing guards who donated their time to help students get across Draper Avenue to the relay track.

“We couldn’t have done it without the support of everybody,” he said.

Taylor also commented on why it was important that the relay occurred at the tail end of the school year.

“Timing is important,” he said. He noted how during summer vacation, the schools are not available for protection and guidance in bullying as much as they are throughout the academic year.

The relay sparked a resonance in many of the students, who all seemed to learn of the “positivity” that can come from a victim’s simply reaching out for help.

“In the past I’ve been bullied and I never knew that I had someone to go to,” said student Sierra Cardenas.

Kelly DeSantis, another student, shared a similar sentiment:

“We learned that it’s OK to stand up for your friends and yourself,” she said. “Don’t try to be friends with the bully just because it’s cool. It’s good to be different.”

It was one of the seeming encouraging factors of the event: To acknowledge our differences and our quirks as humans, and not to bully or judge each other for them, but rather to accept them and appreciate that they make us who we are. The students also learned through the event to be each other’s support system.

“We learned it’s OK to stand up for your friends and yourself,” DeSantis said.

Sothea Ang-minn, another student, sitting with DeSantis and other friends on the lawn, shared insight on how the age-old problem of bullying is not one that will soon dissolve with ease.

“Bullying isn’t just going to go away,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of people and a lot of work. It’s human nature to judge people, but it’s better to keep it to yourself.”

Beside a frozen lemonade truck were a line of students; content, chatting and smiling, waiting in the humid air for a drink to quench their thirst, as Slocum spoke on the importance of the Relay.

“It’s a way of bringing the students together,” she said. “We’re walking to raise awareness.”

And the students were brought together, all for one in a healthy rebellion against bullying.

Perhaps at the end of the day though, we can all agree with student Cain Boberg, who managed to put it plain, simple and honest.

“Whoever invented bullying is cuckoo. It should have never been invented.”