NEWS                                                              Walnut Valley Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           880 S. Lemon Avenue

February 1, 2011                                            Walnut, CA 91789

Contact:         

Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

 (909) 595-1261 ext. 31204

WALNUT, CA-- Students laughed and had fun while learning valuable lessons about preventing bullying during the Bullying Game Show assembly held Monday at Walnut Elementary School.

The program was the school’s culminating activity in the district wide No-Name Calling campaign. 

The goal of the silly show is really a serious one though – to wipe out bullying on school campuses. 

During hour-long interactive assembly, presenter John Abrams used comedy, magic, and audience participation while he defined bullying in simple terms.  He introduced bully prevention concepts including teasing versus taunting, chatter versus gossip, and witness versus bystander.

“Our students LOVED the assembly and learned what they can do to create a positive school climate,” said Principal Janet Green.

Three lucky student contestants were chosen to play The Bully Game Show on stage.

After he gave the students different scenarios, they buzzed in their answers by blowing kazoos. 

In the chatter versus gossip category, he said, “Any time someone says, ‘she is such a loser’ – that is absolutely gossip.” 

The audience giggled when he asked the next question. “When one friend asked a group of friends, ‘did you hear that Josephina picked her nose in Mrs. Hemoglobin’s class? She’s so gross!’”  The answer again was gossip. 

“I think it’s going to help a lot,” said 4th grader Laurel Glassco. “It’s important because it’s in our school, and it’s not good.

“People realize it’s not a good thing,” said 4th grader Jacalyn Rodriguez after the assembly.

The students also competed in a cup stacking game to illustrate the ways to stand up to bullies. And players tried to catch twisting, flying toilet paper as John Abrams used a leaf blower to spin it off the roll and into the air.

During the 2nd assembly held for 4th and 5th graders, teachers Henry Lin and Jeff Almberg jumped on stage to participate in a magic trick and psychologist Sarah Ammon served as the game’s scorekeeper.

“Chatter is when you’re talking to your friend. Nobody’s getting their feelings hurt,” Abrams told the youngsters. “Gossip is a whole other monster.”

Abrams also made a distinction between tattling and being a good witness: Tattling is telling on someone just to get them in trouble and being a good witness means telling on someone to get someone else out of trouble.

“I thought the lessons he taught were important.  Especially about being a good witness – if you see bullying tell a teacher or do something about it,” said Alyssa Smith, age 10.

“If you see someone getting bullied and you join in or laugh at them, you are just as bad as the bully,” Abrams said.

His overall message to the kids was that building a bullyfree school means no more taunting, no more gossip and being a good witness

Abrams plan is to give students the tools to identify and deal with this subject.  He also hosted a Parenting Seminar to help parents recognize and solve the problem of bullying.

Walnut Elementary students had fun during the zany games while learning about bully prevention.  Shown left to right: Kenneth Chew, Tiffany Hwang, and Billy Von Goeben.

Fourth grade student Art Montano and presenter John Abrams showed off their muscles after completing a fun magic trick during the Bullying Game Show assembly. Also shown: Teachers Mr. Lin and Mr. Almberg.