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No-Name Calling Week Starts Today
Imagine a whole week in a middle school where every kid can walk down the hallways without getting picked on. Fat kids, dumb kids, nerdy kids: they all can go about their business without anyone mocking them for the trait that makes them stand out.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Scholastic Children’s Publishing and 40 other partners hopes to create just that with its No Name Calling Week, which kicks off today. It’s inspired by “The Misfits,” about a group of picked-on kids who band together and run for student council on a platform of “no name-calling.” While they don’t win the election, their school sees the value of such an event and creates a No Name-Calling Day.
The real world event seeks to bring attention through education and activities to the problem of name calling in school and to provide students educators with tools to eradicate it entirely. It focuses on grades 5 through 8, where the problem is most severe.
I’d bet, if you asked most adults what mean names there were called in school they could remember exactly what the mean kids called them without even having to think about it. Those scars last. Sometimes, name calling has even more devastating consequences. One of the people advocating for No Name Calling Week this year is Sirdeaner Walker. Her son, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, killed himself last spring after months of relentless bullying at school. She’s pledged to do everything in her power to make sure no other kids have to suffer like her child did.
School needs to be a safe place for everybody, and No Name Callling Week is just a small way to help that happen.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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