HALT! Bullying Prevention Program at UPJ - Zach Y.

On the day of March 25 the Westmont Hilltop school district took 70 students to The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. There we were hurried into a building where we met a doctor (AKA, Jeff). We started the program by him telling us stories of his childhood. Afterward, we then met the high school and college students, while slapping our thighs to the beat of “We Will Rock You.” Next, we put on short plays about what happens in an average school day. Then we broke off into teams. Our team was called “The Bighead Walrus Jiggle Puffs, with Bill Cosby;” some other team names were, “The Goonies,” and “The Purple People Eaters.”
Next we got mentors. In my group, our mentors were Andy and Austin. Then we played the knot game. In the game we had to link one hand to a person in your group, next we had to take our other hand a link it to another person. Then we had to use team work to get out of the knot.
Following, the knot game we sat down and got to know each other. We spoke about our problems to our mentors. After that, we then got a Venn diagram and were given a partner. We had to find things we had in common and things we didn’t. Then Jeff had us work on a project about our school. So, we had to construct a new school, while having a sticker on our heads saying how to treat us. My sticker said “Treat me like I’m normal,” some other stickers said “Treat like if I was a nerd,” and “Kiss up to me.”
Next we got to have lunch. We had pizza and pretzels. Then Jeff made us pretend that we were parts of an ice cream. We had to group to make the best ice cream ever. We then played the fox and the hen game. Then we got to have ice cream.
Lastly the older kids put on a play for us. The final thing we did was sign a sign that we won’t be bullies. The trip was very fun and interesting.