About 30% of teenagers in America have been involved in bullying, either as a victim… or as a bully.  Along with other schools and communities throughout the country, Fluvanna County High School is trying to reduce that percentage.  They started with a series of anti-bullying public service announcements on In The Know, followed by a special assembly and a “Boo Bullying” day.

“You should be kind to everyone.  You don’t know what others have been through.  My best friend almost committed suicide because of bullying, so I hope that these events are successful and raise awareness about it and I hope that it stops,” said FCHS sophomore Newlin Humphrey.

Guest speaker Keith Deltano spoke to an assembly of students on Oct. 27.  Many students found him funny, but also thought that he got the point across well.  “It got to me because I was bullied and I know exactly how he felt,” said sophomore Rachel Sherman.

Deltano was chosen because a school from another district was using him.  Fluvanna checked some samples of his work, liked it, and asked him to come speak to students here, too.  A lot of schools like his work because he uses a comical approach to get the point across to students.  Before becoming an educational comedian, Deltano worked as a military police officer, middle school teacher, and other roles that prepared him to talk to students.  He even won the Teaching Excellence Award when teaching sixth grade to at-risk children.  Deltano was also mentioned in Who’s Who of America’s Teachers and Outstanding Young Men of America.  You can see more of Deltano’s work at www.DontBullyOnline.com.

The next event to raise awareness was the “Boo to Bullying” black out, which encouraged Flucos to wear black to school on Oct. 29 to show solidarity against bullying.  The third block class with the highest percentage of students wearing black got a Papa John’s pizza party.  This idea was successful, and there were 42 classes with 100% of the class wearing black.  There was a coin toss to decide the winner, and Mr. Joel Gray’s class won, getting the pizza party.  “I hope that it increases awareness of the fact that individuals can make a difference,” said Mrs. Blair Steele.

Student Government Association (SGA) is already thinking about doing other things in the future to prevent bullying in Fluvanna.  The next event will be on Nov. 24 and it will be like the black out except students will wear white instead of black.  “I like that we did the black out and the games we did throughout the week because it helped involve students and bring awareness about bullying to our school,” said SGA member Erin Blackburn.  “We hope to raise awareness on what bullying actually is and more ways students can recognize it to prevent it.”