It was the Monday after a week full of anti-bullying talks, exercises and preventions. Yik Yak had taken over the screens of our students’ phones the previous week. Hurtful words had been typed on this app where kids anonymously bullied. My school stood it’s ground. Any discovered Yik Yackers were sent to the office and punished with Saturday detention or a suspension.

I thought, I might die of boredom if I have to sit through another anti-bullying exercise. But I was wrong. I remember walking through the doors with dread. And what did I see...just what I thought...yet another exercise to stop bullying. But this was not like the others--this one actually sounded fun. NoH8 Week.

   This time it was up to the students to make the change and end bullying. Each day, we wore a different color to support those who have been bullied. The more I thought about it, the more I got the point. If we all wore the same color...what was so different about us? We all looked the same. What was there to bully about if we were all the same? We could take our spirit to any level. We could go as far as to wear colored pants. It was like homecoming week all over again. But there was more--there were Post-Its stuck to every student's locker promoting NoH8 Week and inspirational quotes were posted in the hallways to encourage anti-bullying.

Looking back,  my schoolcould not have handled the bullying on Yik Yak any better. Yik Yak was blocked within a day. And the teachers and administration solved the problem while attacking a much larger issue. They got the students to stop bullying  and they made it fun. There was no more Yik Yak, no more bullying, and we came back together as ourselves--One Team.