Seattle Thunderbirds players told around 400 elementary students bullying wasn’t cool.
“When I was growing up, I was around it and wasn’t sure what to do about it,” said Tyler Alos, T-Bird player. “It would have been nice to have someone older come tell me how I could handle it and who I could talk to.”
The hockey players talked during an anti-bullying assembly held at Star Lake Elementary on Dec. 6. The team partnered with Communities In Schools to do assemblies at elementary schools and mentoring at Kent Elementary.
“We want to connect the community to provide services to our schools, bridging those gaps so to speak,” said Dee Klem, elementary mentor program coordinator for communities.”We feel like this is a great partnership. It allows us to provide good information to the students through the players, who the kids are always excited to see.”
The schools chose a topic for the players to discuss during each assembly, which included goal setting, responsibility and anti-bullying. Star Elementary was the 6th assembly for the players.
“We really like doing these assemblies and they always go well,” Alos said. “At this one we talked about what different types of bullying are, which are verbal, physical, teasing and gossip.”
Alos shared a story about a friend he had that was bullied as a child.
“He is still affected by all he went through, so I thought that was a good example for the kids to realize how bad bullying is,” Alos said. “It doesn’t just affect someone now, but affects them years down the road.”
The players encouraged the students to speak up if they’re being bullied and talk to a parent, teacher or school staff member.
“We told them that these people care about them and want them to be treated well,” Alos said. “No one should have to suffer through something like that.”
The students were able to ask questions to the players after the assembly.
“You can tell by what they were asking us that we really got to them,” Alos said. “I really hope they walk away wanting to respect each other and not wanting to bully.”
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