This article was written by several Verona High School students who participate in the Heroes & Cool Kids Program: Daisy Bourne, Paige Zebrowski, Anthony Huber, Christina Broznya and Erin Smythe.
Verona High School students who participate in the Heroes & Cool Kids program went through the second training session on Thursday, February 3 in the Verona High School library. Funding for Verona High School to participate in this program comes to us from the Verona Municipal Alliance Committee’s DEDR funds, which come from a grant from the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Alcohol and Drugs.
The mentor for this training session was Larry Hardesty, a veteran of the broadcasting business with over 20 years of experience. Currently, he is the sideline reporter for all NY Jets home games on the Jets Radio Network.
The training was focused on bullying behavior and sportsmanship. All groups had to give a three- to five-minute talk that pointed out good morals for both bullying and sportsmanship. In addition, Mr. Hardesty guided students on what to do in certain situations that had derived from bullying.
The Heroes & Cool Kids program is scheduled to return to the fifth grade classes at H.B Whitehorne Middle School later this month. The high school participants feel it is their job to educate the fifth graders on the lessons that they have learned and give them new ideas and outlooks on bullying behavior and sportsmanship. The high school students will provide the positive attitude they need to feel comfortable to speak about their problems with adults and get help if they need it.
The threefold message for this second visit is 1) If you are a bully, stop; 2) If you are a victim, get help; and 3) If you are a bystander, get involved by talking to someone. The goal of the Heroes & Cool Kids program is to reduce the 85% of people who are bystanders to bullying in schools to 0% here in Verona.
