Rockville Centre students work to end bullying

With stories about anti-gay bias crimes and bullying in the news almost every day, and with reports of at least six gay student suicides across the county in the first few weeks of school, administrators, teachers and students have been working to make sure nothing like that happens in Rockville Centre schools.

Members of South Side High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance, a chapter of a national organization that was initiated by South Side students about nine years, were busy last Thursday at their weekly after-school meeting, making plans to mount a strong week-long anti-bullying campaign and to mark National Coming Out Day, on Oct. 14.

“Our goal is to promote education for the acceptance of all people,” said Nicole Knorr, a school social worker who, with English teachers Christine Brown and Jenn Monsour, serves as an advisor to the club. “We are working to create a school environment that’s safe and comfortable for everybody.”

Knorr explained that Coming Out Day was to “come out” in support of safe schools and to mark the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student who was tortured and killed in a nationally publicized hate crime in October 1998.

At least 20 students stopped by a classroom on the second floor that afternoon to listen to a brief presentation and sign up for upcoming activities that will include staffing a day-long anti-bullying table outside the auditorium, and possibly a moment of silence during the school’s daily morning news broadcast. They enjoyed cookies and also posed as a group for a high school yearbook photo.