Friday, November 6, 2026
Seventh-grade students at West Hempstead Secondary School are using their creativity to promote kindness, respect and awareness through the school’s annual anti-bullying poster contest. The longstanding initiative gives students an opportunity to work together and spread an important message throughout their school community.
The contest has been a tradition at the school for approximately eight to 10 years. The entire seventh-grade class is invited to participate by forming groups and creating posters featuring meaningful slogans and artwork focused on preventing bullying.
This year, approximately 70 posters were submitted. Once the projects were completed, teachers and administrators throughout the secondary school voted for their five favorite entries. Awards were given for first, second and third place, along with two honorable mentions.
Seventh-grader Isabella Llanos took home first place for her creative poster illustrating the lasting effects of bullying. Her design featured an iceberg, with a small portion visible above the water and a much larger section hidden underneath. The visible portion represented rude comments and bullying, while the larger section underneath represented the emotional effects those actions can have on someone, including self-consciousness and negative feelings about themselves.
Llanos said she enjoyed the creative process, particularly coloring her poster and coming up with an idea that would communicate an important message. She also wanted to participate as a way to encourage students to stand up for others.
“My favorite part was coloring it,” Llanos said. “It was fun just thinking of what to come up with. And I think it was a really good project.”
Students Noah Midouin and Aryansh Singh made second place while Elise Portillo came in third.
Fellow seventh-grader Christian Lugo also participated in the contest, enjoying the opportunity to collaborate with a friend. Through his poster, he focused on the importance of understanding how bullying can affect friendships and the feelings of others.
“Don’t bully because if you bully your friend they won’t be your friend anymore,” Lugo said.
Brown hopes the project encourages students to recognize that words and actions can have lasting consequences, even when comments are intended as jokes. He emphasized that bullying affects more than just the individual being targeted and that everyone in the school community has a responsibility to look out for one another.
“We have each other’s back, we stick up for one another and we do not want these negative comments and bullying in our hallways,” Brown said.
The contest also encourages students who witness bullying to take action rather than remain silent. Brown stressed the importance of supporting classmates, including those students may not know personally or consider close friends.
Through the annual poster contest, West Hempstead Secondary School continues to give its seventh-graders an opportunity to turn creativity into a message of kindness, reminding the school community that everyone deserves respect and that no student should have to face bullying alone.
