FTC Attends Anti-Bullying Summit

On Wednesday, October 21, The Center for Prevention and Counseling hosted their annual, countywide Anti-Bullying Summit at Sussex County Technical School in Sparta, NJ from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. High school students from various schools were grouped together as leaders and were assigned to one of the 30 middle schools in attendance. This year, the summit adopted the slogan, “Kindness Counts. It starts with you,” as a constant reminder that students are capable of making a positive change in their school community. The summit included team-building activities hosted by the high school mentors, who interacted with the middle school students throughout the entire day. Keith Hawkins was this year’s keynote motivational speaker, who hosted group workshops and got the crowd of 1,000 students riled up. Various middle schools were represented at the summit with performances – our own Sparta Middle School’s Peer Leader students performed a choreographic piece symbolizing individualism.

Sparta High School’s Find the Courage seniors accompanied by selected junior and sophomore volunteers also attended the summit. The students attended training on Tuesday night at Sussex Tech in order to participate in the event.

Find the Courage is an extra curricular at Sparta High that is open to seniors who demonstrate leadership abilities and are passionate about taking the pledge against bullying.