Forest Road students fight bullying with symbol of peace

Forest Road School Principal Erin Malone helps kindergartner Michael Johnson color a shirt.

Andrew Hackmack/Herald

First-grade student Kameron Van Etten watched as Student Council co-advisor Jennifer Kozub hung up her tie-dyed shirt to dry.

Andrew Hackmack/Herald

First-graders Jared Green, left, and Andy Dorant tie-dye their T-shirts.

Andrew Hackmack/Herald

Sharon Benyaminy, a Student Council advisor at Forest Road School, helped first grader Gavin Benavides tie-dye a T-shirt on May 29 as part of an anti-bullying program.

Andrew Hackmack/Herald

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Bullying others isn’t tolerated at Forest Road or any another school in District 30 or Valley Stream. To drive home that point, students made tie-dye T-shirts last week as both a symbol of their unity and their differences.

The sun was shining bright on May 29 when children went outside where buckets of colored water and latex gloves awaited. Each child was asked to bring a plain white T-shirt from home. With the help of teachers, parent volunteers and Principal Erin Malone, each student was able to pick two colors to create their tie-dye creation.

Speech teachers Sharon Benyaminy and Jennifer Kozub, advisors to the Student Council, organized the event. They used a $200 gift card from Michael’s and money from the Student Council’s budget to purchase supplies.

Benyaminy said that Student Council members wanted to promote an anti-bullying message through a community activity. “Bullying is a hot topic today,” she said. “We decided to do tie-dye to say ‘peace out’ to bullying.

Tie-dye, Malone noted, has long been a symbol of peace.

By noon, T-shirts were strewn across the school yard, drying out so the children could take them home. That following Friday, they were asked to wear the shirts to school so everyone would be clad in tie-dye together.

“It’s nice for the all of the school to come together,” Kozub said. “We definitely want to raise awareness because bullying is such a big problem and its has bigger ramifications as they get older.”

While Kozub said bullying is not a problem at Forest Road School, she and others want students to know the effects of mistreating others. By wearing tie-dye shirts on the same day, Kozub said that showed how the student body was united against bullying. Yet, each T-shirt was different showing the how each child is unique. “No two shirts look the same,” she said, “just like no two kids are the same.”

The children got the message. “I liked it,” said LaMya Mays. “It was fun. You get to have a shirt that prevents bullying.”

LaMya said she picked purple and pink for her color combination. She said she plans to wear the shirt to school a lot. “They look pretty and they remind me of rainbows,” she said.