Richards students put a foot down on bullying
Really though. Check out their mural below.
High school students at Ellen Richards Career Academy in Englewood are in the midst of painting a mural with visual artist Diane Green, and the theme, as you can see, is anti-bullying.
Several of our programs this year have focused on bullying prevention, which is no surprise when you consider that 71% of students report that bullying is a problem at their school and 2/3 of students say that schools don’t respond adequately to bullying issues (source). Just a few months ago we posted this blog entry about Janeen Kern’s anti-bullying visual arts residency at EPIC Academy. The EPIC and Richards programs share similar goals: To use artistic expression to empower students to speak out against bullying.
Diane and her Richards students are focusing on questions like “What to do if you see someone bullied” and “How to educate the community about bullying”. Their mural is one answer to the second question.
Diane also introduced students to anti-bullying music videos as inspiration: “No Bullies Allowed”, a rap video by Minnesota youth (some really powerful lines in there), and “True Colors (by Artists Against Bullying) ASL”. (Kind of reminds us of the “courage and heroes” theme from Jacob Watson’s recent theater residency.)
More photos below!
