This article was originally published in The Examiner on Oct. 27, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
West Book High School hosted its third annual anti-bullying rally and candlelight
vigil Thursday, Oct. 20.
The student club BRAVE (Be Respectful and Verbalize Equality) is the only club speaking out against bullying within BISD right now, organizers say, but they hope the
movement will spread to other area schools.
“October is anti-bullying month,” explained club sponsor Candace LeMasters. “The
first year we had a vigil because we actually had a young lady at West Brook who
attempted to take her life due to bullying issues.”
The club BRAVE was founded just six months before this incident.
“We decided then that we needed to shed light on bullying and bring that up to the forefront because it is a very important issue with young people today,” LeMasters said.
LeMasters credits BRAVE both with “mak[ing] students more apt to come forward” as well as “open[ing] up an atmosphere for other clubs that would shed light on tolerance,” noting the Gay Straight Alliance chapter that formed this year, started by two straight students, and the Sparkle Cheerleaders for special needs children.
During the ceremony, LeMasters said a previous student had attended a leadership event and asked if West Brook had a student organization “specifically service-minded
to address social issues.”
LeMasters and the student officers also believe that increased acceptance has become an important topic this year.
“This summer, our president Winston Hung came to me and we sat and we talked and we decided that in addition to anti-bullying, we wanted to branch out,” she said.
“We also wanted to include social and cultural awareness and understanding. Because of the atmosphere that we have in today’s world and in our country, we felt like it was a very timely expansion of our club.”
Winston Hung, BRAVE club president, said in his address that “a community wide effort shows that adults care and [victims] are not alone.”
Beaumont ISD Police Sgt. Timberly Battle also spoke during the rally.
“Teenagers define bullying as someone who exerts power over another one and they’re unable to stop that bully themselves,” Battle said, noting the newer trend of cyberbullying.
“Bullying can turn into a criminal act, depending on the type of bullying that is being done. If it becomes physical, it can constitute an assault. If persistent, it can constitute harassment. So we stand with the administrators, with you, with BISD, and we have a zero tolerance for bullying.”
Graziel Hinola, another BRAVE officer, introduced the Sallie Curtis Cheerleaders and the Beaumont Bulldog Cheerleaders.
“Students have a unique power when it comes to preventing bullying,” Hinola said.
Four different religious leaders from the community spoke at the event: Dr. Karen Dorris from the First United Methodist Church, Imam Fahmee Al- Uqdah from the Islamic Center of Southeast Texas, Rabbi Joshua Taub from The Temple Emmanuel Congregation, and the Rev. Amos Harmon, parent facilitator at West Brook.
“We are called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves,” Dorris said in her address. “Love, like my faith tradition describes, means that all people have worth and they have value and they have dignity simply because they are. You have worth and value and dignity and importance in the world simply because you are.
“Loving other people means that I am called to value other people and to see them as people of dignity and worth simply because they are.”
Al-Uqdah spoke to the students about patience, explaining that it is mentioned in all major scriptures.
“The Bible says that patience is a virtue. A virtue means that you have excellent humanity, that you have excellent moral character, that you have excellent man-
ners, that you have excellent speech all of the time and that you carry yourself with dignity,” Al-Uqdah said. “Now to be patient means that no matter what you experience, no matter what difficulty comes your way, you don’t abandon your moral excellence, you don’t abandon your virtues, you don’t respond to ugliness with ugliness.”
Taub explained that he is the only rabbi in Southeast Texas, and the Jewish community is a minority group in the area. He said that West Brook students in his own congregation had been bullied.
“I know there are hundreds of students who show up every day who feel invisible because people look right through them,” Taub said. “It is very hard to be unkind to people who are not strangers. It is so important to recognize the other. We are all responsible for making the stranger our friend.”
Other club officers cited statistics in their introductions of speakers and the performance from the West Brook Drama Club, explaining to the crowd that students who engage in bullying are more likely to experience academic problems.
The event closed with the candlelight vigil.
Eleanor Skelton 