[lovethiscity]

Hats off to the football team that got 10,000 Michigan City residents in one spot for a great night out!

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/communications/B...ent%20Issue.pdf

Dr. Iacona noted that many MCAS students and staff have been involved in charitable
activities this holiday season. She mentioned several projects that are finishing up this week:

♦ At Eastport, Principal Kent Davis shaved his head and beard to pay up on his challenge
to students and staff, who collected 2,500 items for the Salvation Army’s food pantry.

♦ Many MCAS buildings have been collecting food items for the Salvation Army. Dr.
Iacona thanked the Plant Planning department for its assistance in delivering the items.

♦ Transportation staff, along with members of the MCHS football team, “Stuffed a Bus”
with food and toys last Friday and Saturday at the Wal Mart parking lot. Dr. Iacona
thanked Transportation Director Kevin Neafie and Community Liaison Mario Rosa for
coordinating this effort.

♦ The Michigan City Classified Association collected gloves, hats, and scarves this holiday
season; these items will be distributed at schools to students in need. Dr. Iacona thanked
Darline Melendez and Pat Risner who chaired this effort.

♦ Dr. Iacona thanked MCHS teacher Fran Booth for coordinating Operation Bookworm,
which is providing new books to children in need.

Dr. Iacona mentioned several other projects, including a “cell phones for soldiers” collection
at Knapp, a drive by 9th graders that resulted in 20 large boxes of items for care packages for
troops overseas, the JROTC Toys for Tots collection, and the assistance of the JROTC and
student athletes in sorting and delivery of food and toys for the Salvation Army. She said that
there are many other efforts not mentioned; we appreciate the extra effort being made to give
back to our community during these challenging economic times.

[Southsider2k12]

Today and tomorrow are finals for the first semester of the school year. Friday marks the halfway point of the 2009-2010 school year.

[JHeath]

The students at Joy Elementary are collecting coins this week...with all of the proceeds being directed to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

I'm very proud of my son (almost 6 yrs old). He decided to open his small bank where he keeps his spending money, and donate some of his own money to the cause. Looks like I've taught him well.

[Homey]

Now that's cute!!!!

This is the kind of stuff that belongs on the front page of the N.D.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...ed155177897.txt

Krueger students collect $500 for Haiti

Sharon Schuman/For The News-Dispatch Three Krueger Middle School students greet Bobbi Petru (left) of the American Red Cross with a donation for Haiti earthquake relief. The students are William Howard (from left), Mohammad Hakim and Moneisha Martin. At right is Principal Martha Birkholz.
From Staff Reports
Published: Monday, January 25, 2010 4:16 AM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — Krueger Middle School students and teachers have raised more than $500 for the American Red Cross to go toward relief efforts following the earthquake in Haiti.

Within hours after the earthquake, Martha Birkholz, principal of Krueger Middle School, initiated the fundraising effort to help the Haitian people. Teachers and students from the schools’ 38 classrooms generously brought in contributions that were deposited in buckets. Their efforts yielded a total of $507.94.

Bobbi Petru, executive director of the La Porte County Chapter of the American Red Cross, visited the school Friday afternoon to receive the donations and present students with an award for their work.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...ef524682282.txt

Joy student organizes Haiti collection drive

Provided by Betsy Kohn Ryan Lux poses with money he helped collect.
Published: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:17 AM CST
Provided by Betsy Kohn

MICHIGAN CITY — When Joy Elementary School fifth-grader Ryan Lux saw images of the earthquake devastation in Haiti on TV, he knew he had to act.

But what could one 10-year-old do?

“I went to my mom and told her I wanted to collect spare change at school to send to Haiti,” Ryan said. “She thought it was a great idea. I even got her to agree to throw a pizza party for the class that collected the most money!”

Ryan’s next stop: grandma’s house.

“My grandma had all these containers she let me borrow to collect donations in,” he says. Ryan’s grandmother, Thalia Baker, is executive director of Michigan City’s Meals On Wheels program. With his family’s help, he labeled each container with the words “Change Haiti” and a picture of a child reaching for the sky, standing atop a stack of books.

At school the next day, Ryan approached his fifth-grade teacher, Joanne Thorne, and Joy Principal Karen Williams with the project. They agreed it was a great idea — and suggested the proceeds be donated to the American Red Cross.

Ryan’s classmates helped spread the word about Joy’s “Change Haiti” campaign through letters home and daily announcements. After just three days, the collection jugs were filled with donations from Joy students and staff. Mrs. Thorne’s class spent Friday afternoon sorting and counting the change — which totaled $893.

“I think our class might win the party,” Ryan said Friday as the count got under way. “Either that, or my sister’s first grade class, Mrs. (Susan) Baldwin’s room.”

(Ryan’s class won, collecting more than $100. His sister’s class placed third with close to $85.)

Ryan’s family is moving to Alabama later this week, where his father has been transferred to a new job. But Ryan — who is president of his class at Joy — isn’t too worried about his new school.

“Maybe kids there will want to do the same thing for Haiti,” he says. “We’ll see.”

Meanwhile, Ryan has a message for the adults of Michigan City.

“They should all donate their spare change to change Haiti, too!” he said Friday, surveying the mounds of coins being sorted on his classroom floor. “It really adds up.”

[JHeath]

Great job, Ryan! I'm thrilled that his class came in first (after all, the whole thing was his idea--it's fitting).
My son's class--Mrs. Dabagia's kindergarten class--came in a proud second.

[Southsider2k12]

Congrats!

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...a5955000087.txt

mchs Japanese students best in state

Provided Japanese teacher Mike Tsugawa with baby Mia (from left), and Ashley Tharp, Kara Bogoslawski, Anna Biela, Maxwell Holland, Mya Abbott and Alex Mark, the winners of the state Japanese competition.
Students take top prizes at Japanese Olympiad
By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Monday, March 15, 2010 4:17 AM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — For the first time in the history of the Japanese Olympiad of Indiana, Michigan City High School brought home two state titles.

Never before had MCAS won even one title.

MCHS Japanese teacher Mike Tsugawa is thrilled.

“This event is essentially the state tournament of academic Japanese for Indiana, and is the marquee event for most of the high school students taking Japanese in our state,” said Tsugawa, who is president of the Association of Indiana Teachers of Japanese.

The event, which this year was at Valparaiso High School, attracted some 200 students from 15 high schools.

“The students compete in a quiz-bowl format at three different levels,” Tsugawa explained. The levels are organized according to the number of years students have been studying Japanese. Thus Level 2 students have been studying for two years; Level 3 for three years and Level 4 for four years.

A preliminary round determines the top three scoring teams at each level and only those teams advance to the state tournament, where they compete for the state title.

Tsugawa said it has been at least five years since MCHS even advanced to the finals.

Not only did they get into the finals, but the MCHS Level 3 and Level 4 teams, the most advanced students, brought home the state title.

“This is a tremendous achievement for these hardworking, self-motivated young scholars in a tough language, and they have a lot to be proud of,” Tsugawa said. “They put in a great deal of time studying for this event, going well beyond the pace of the curriculum I teach, and they earned these titles against some very tough competition.”

Members of the Level 3 team were Alex Mark (team captain), Mya Abbott, and Maxwell Holland.

Anna Biela (team captain), Ashley Tharp, and Kara Bogoslawski were members of the Level 4 team.

[Tim]

Congrats!

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...a5955000087.txt

I read this too. I studied Japanese at UCLA for three years before moving to Japan - it is a REALLY tough language for Americans to learn. For these students to do what they did took real effort. Hats off to them!

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/1...5e807581081.txt

MCAS striving to better inspire kids, improve scores

Third-grade teacher Erin Breen (top right) watches Thursday as her students at Niemann Elementary School try to answer as many addition problems as possible in one minute. Students set goals for how many they’d like to answer, and get to advance a rocket on the “Rocket Math” board if they make their goal. Teachers are using this program to raise ISTEP scores. A story is on A3. Photo by Alicia Ebaugh
By Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, November 19, 2010 5:12 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — When she was in fourth grade, Jazzmer Deal’s reading skills were two grades below where they should be. But after one year of using Read 180 software, an intensive reading intervention program at Niemann Elementary School, she’s moved up a whole grade level.

Now, the fifth-grader is a member of the “100,000 Word Club,” an exclusive group of students who have mastered 100,000 new words.

“I really like to read now. I even got an A in reading!,” Deal exclaimed with a smile before turning her attention to her computer where she was acing a spelling test, read to her by the software through headphones.

The push to enrich student learning — and boost ISTEP scores — is becoming evident in Michigan City’s public elementary and middle schools. Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress is an annual testing regimen whose mission is to encourage students to master the basics.

*
From introducing math skills as early as kindergarten, to diving into skill-building test data for middle-schoolers, teachers and administrators are using every method they can find to make Adequate Yearly Progress as required by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

Half of the district’s schools did not make AYP this year.

“We’re so proud of the significant gains we’ve already made, but we know we need to work really hard as a team if we want everyone to make it next year,” said Jan Radford, MCAS director of K-12 curriculum.

q

“How many ears does a mouse have? Two?” kindergartner Zaria Truvillion asked her teacher, LouAnn Tuttle.

“Yes, so how many do three have?” Tuttle replied.

“Three!” shouted Amy Romero-Bahena. “Oh, wait.”

The students were using Math Exemplars, a curriculum that introduces math concepts while children are young so they grasp them by the time they’re needed to be put to use. Niemann Principal Marsha Tappan hopes this program, as well as Rocket Math at the third-grade level, will create enough improvement to allow the school to make AYP next year. Unfortunately, a number of students come from homes where parental guidance is lacking, she said, and the children don’t always come to school with adequate reading or language skills, let alone being able to do math problems.

“Perseverance is a strength here,” Tappan said. “No matter where they’re at or how they come in, that’s where we start. We have a lot of success with the kids, but it doesn’t always show in their scores.”

Niemann, a Title I elementary school with 95 percent of students in its free or reduced lunch program, was the lowest-scoring elementary school on the spring ISTEP. It was placed on academic watch just one year after it missed making AYP by seven tenths of a point, Tappan said.

Last year’s fifth-grade class at Niemann saw their English and math test scores decline drastically over three years, while the third- and fourth-graders’ scores went up.

“There was some instability in teaching for the (fifth-graders),” Associate Superintendent Xavier Botana said. “Also, that school has very high turnover, about a third of the students in each grade level are new every year.”

Marsh, another Title I school, made enough progress this spring to earn an exemplary rating with the state, but it was held at bay because it hadn’t made AYP in the past.

“If they make AYP next year, they’ll be off the list completely,” Radford said.

All the work these students are doing at lower grade levels will carry forward to middle school, Botana said. But for those already there, positive behavioral supports and a restructuring of the school day are making a difference.

At Krueger Middle School, one-fourth of students are classified as special education due to behavioral issues, learning deficit or other disability. Principal Marsha Birkholz said, “It means we have to know every single student and how to approach their learning.”

ISTEP scores at Krueger slipped .4 percent, by two student scores, Botana said.

Krueger was one of the first city schools to latch onto positive behavioral supports, which provide specific goals, set expectations and provide rewards. Now, rewards programs are popping up at other schools, including Niemann, in hopes of inspiring children to learn. Some teachers, like seventh-grade language arts teacher Sarah Good, are coming in at 7 a.m. so 25 of her struggling students can use predictive testing software to build their skills. The school also has transformed homeroom at the beginning of the school day to include 15 minutes of working with that software, Birkholz said.

“We’re petitioning (the union) to grant us a waiver that will simplify our schedule and allow for 45 minutes at the end of the day where students can address their specific needs or get counseling,” she said.

Botana stopped to chat Thursday with Dakota Lombard, an eighth-grader whose top test scores place him among the best students at Krueger.

“What do you want to do when you graduate?” Botana asked him.

“I want to be a lawyer. I’m going to Harvard University,” Lombard replied.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Botana exclaimed.

[Ang]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...23790848489.txt

MCAS students learn from brass band members


By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, February 10, 2011 5:07 PM CST


MICHIGAN CITY — If you unroll the coils, the tubing will be 12 feet long.

Although the object, itself, had its beginnings in the Middle Ages, its valves did not appear until the 19th century.

A plumbing implement? Hardly.

It’s a French horn, so named by the English, but invented in Germany.

And beloved by those who play it.

Alexis McGrath, a seventh-grader at Krueger Middle School, listened carefully as Philip Hahn, a French horn player with the South Shore Brass Band, told young musicians about the horn and how it can make beautiful music.

Members of the South Shore Brass Band — some of them current and former music teachers — brought a motivational, musical message to Michigan City High School and Michigan City Area Schools middle-school students Wednesday.

After a concert, band members taught small master classes.

Michigan City High School trumpet player Molly Archer held a note for longer than all but two other students, and those two — boys — tied for first.

Like most students, Archer listened attentively and took notes throughout the session with instructors Larry Lane and Chuck Bailey.

In another session, this one for percussionists, a group of high school boys smiled with good humor as they stood in a circle just outside the band room and practiced on the triangle.

The concert for students, master classes and a free concert tonight were made possible by grants from South Shore Arts, Indiana Arts Commission and The National Endowment for the Arts.

As Hahn told the French horn players: “The white paper with the black dots in front of you is not music. It’s just a musical score. Music comes when you work and practice and finally, your audience hears the sounds you produce.”

If You Go

The Shore Brass Band will present a free concert at 7 tonight in the Michigan City High School auditorium. The band is a 28-member group with members from Chicago and northern Indiana.

[Ang]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...8f233401881.txt

Paying it forward by feeding the community

By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 5:08 PM CST

MICHIGAN CITY — During Christmas vacation, Dianne Lindenmeyer was thinking about the end of the year and the new one about to begin.

She started thinking about “firsts,” the first of the year, the number 1 and so on.

“One is powerful,” said Lindenmeyer, a curriculum coach at Krueger Middle School and curriculum consultant for Barker Middle School.

Lindenmeyer takes pride in projects the Michigan City Area Schools undertake to help the community.

“We do have food collections,” she said, “and sometimes we have competitions among classes or home rooms. Usually a pizza party goes to the winners,” she added.

Students and their families are generous so her idea was to organize a food drive in its simplest form.

“We would have no contests, no pizza parties,” she said.

Lindenmeyer asked each student to bring one can of soup. Naturally, many students brought more and some broke the rule to add food like macaroni and cheese.

What’s more, both Barker and Elston Middle Schools joined the effort.

All was welcome at The Salvation Army food pantry.

“They were really short of food,” Lindenmeyer said. “I didn’t realize The Salvation Army feeds 800 families each month,” she added.

Lindenmeyer settled on 1-11-11 for the first drive and students responded with about 600 cans of food.

“We’ll go on with 2-11 and 3-11 and so on,” Lindenmeyer said.

On Friday, Feb. 11, Krueger Middle School had a Valentine’s Day party. For admission to the dance portion of the party, students were asked to bring cans of soup.

“I brought six cans,” said seventh-grader Antonio Ruiz. “I brought three cans of soup plus salmon and beans.”

Sixth-grader Ronald Cambridge called the Power of 1 “a good idea because I know some people don’t have enough food.”

[Southsider2k12]

For those who have a negative image of MCHS I'd like to take a second to talk about some of the amazing performances that have happened recently. The Science Olympiad team placed first in their region. The Japanese team lost first place at state on a tie-breaker and finished second. The Quiz Bowl team is going to state finals, as are a bunch of the swimmers. They also had a music team finish very highly (someone please fill in the details!). Plus the Lady Wolves hoops team won conference while the boys team has completed back to back double digit win seasons for the first time since 01. Congrats to all of them!

[Ang]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...81144337231.txt

MCHS team takes second in state at Japanese Olympiad



Pictured are Mike Tsugawa (back row, from left), Max Holland, Mya Abbott and Alex Mark. Kelsey Kuhl is in the front row. Photo by Matt Field
By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, February 19, 2011 5:06 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — A Michigan City High School team placed second in the state in the recent Japanese Olympiad of Indiana at Valparaiso University.

“At the highest level of competition, Level Four, the Michigan City High School team of Mya Abbott, Max Holland, Kelsey Kuhl and Alex Mark scored highest in the playoffs, and went on to take second in the state,” their coach and teacher, Mike Tsugawa, said.

Last year, those four students captured the state title in Level Three competition.

The Michigan City Level Two team of Jaspar Miller, Aaron Rehbein and Theresa Saenz placed fourth. The Level Three team of Elizabeth Brown, Ian Schult and Devin Warner placed fifth.

Levels refer to the number of years students have been studying Japanese; thus, Level Four students are studying the language for the fourth year.

Overall, Bloomington North won Level Two, Connersville won Level Three and Chesterton won Level Four. The state contest does not include a first level competition.

Participating high schools were Bloomington North, Valparaiso, North Central High, Michigan City, Chesterton, Connersville, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Penn, Highland, Center Grove, Muncie Central, Muncie Southside, Blackford County.

This year’s Japanese Olympiad was co-hosted by professor Jennifer Prough of Valparaiso University and Cathy Sparks of Valparaiso High School, and coordinated by Akiko Tsugawa of Chesterton High School. Professors from Earlham College, DePauw University and Indiana University were judges.

“On a personal note, I want also to extend congratulations to the Chesterton team coached by John Sparks (who started the MCHS Japanese program) that won Level Four. They have worked long and hard to win. I know John as a neighbor and friend, and know what a tremendous job he has done,” Tsugawa said. “I want to extend recognition to a guy who works with his kind of integrity.

“The other Japanese teacher in Chesterton happens to be my wife, Akiko, so the Tsugawa intra-family rivalry has kicked in,” Tsugawa said with a chuckle.

He said he is “tremendously proud” of his team for mastering the material covered in the competition: grammar, vocabulary, kanji (Chinese writing), history, traditional culture and pop culture.

The pressure can be enormous.

“Though I have taught this language for 10 years, and studied it for far longer than that, I can’t help but wonder if I could do as well as my students did,” Tsugawa said. “They were simply awesome.

“No one competes at this level without hard, hard, work, self-motivation and a solid supporting cast. I am talking about teammates, teachers and parents working together,” Tsugawa continued.

[Ang]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...f6774487268.txt

MCAS educators confident about ISTEP

By Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 5:07 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — Whether it’s learning about “purple” words or how to alluringly use alliteration, students at Springfield and Coolspring elementary schools have been improving their writing skills one “Power Half-Hour” at a time.

And they’re just in time — the writing portion of state ISTEP testing started this week. Each school has been using its own approach to preparation, but this seems to have been particularly effective, curriculum coach Lisa Bailey said.

“We have definitely seen increases in our student writing scores,” Bailey said. “We’d like to think it’s because of our direct instruction.”

Twice a week, about 50 people, from parents to lunch staff, come to volunteer in the half-hour sessions. Bailey said they use the time to emphasize different aspects of writing in response to a prompt question, including using “purple” words that make writing jump off the page.

“Scores are based on so many aspects, including how interesting the writing is,” she said.

She feels their third-, fourth- and fifth-graders are ready.

Tips to prepare for the test

• Get a good night’s sleep.

• Eat a nutritious breakfast before taking the test (free breakfasts are available to many students every day).

• Wear comfortable clothing on test day.

• Listen carefully to all directions. Raise your hand and ask questions if you don’t understand what to do, either before or during the test.

• Think positive and try to stay relaxed.

• Read the entire question and look for key words.

• Read every day at home. It’s proven that students who are good readers score higher on the ISTEP+ in all areas.

• Remember, these tests are important.

Source: Michigan City Area Schools

[Southsider2k12]

http://media-newswire.com/release_1145799.html

Student's artwork draws attention for Japan disaster relief
Seeing the unfolding disaster in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan prompted Purdue student Zac Neulieb to want to do something to help. So the graphic designer in the College of Liberal Arts turned to what he does best - art.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Seeing the unfolding disaster in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan prompted Purdue student Zac Neulieb to want to do something to help. So the graphic designer in the College of Liberal Arts turned to what he does best - art.

Neulieb, a senior from Michigan City, Ind., created a "Help Japan" poster to remind people that they can text "RedCross" to the number 90999 to make relief donations. His poster is on the design website abduzeedo.com. He also is selling his poster for $22.50 online at http://zacneulieb.bigcartel.com, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

The black poster features a white seismograph line that represents the activity timeline of an earthquake over the red disk from the Japanese flag.

Purdue's Asian American Association and the Filipino Association are sponsoring an April 2 charity event called the AAA-PFA Basketball Tournament. Proceeds will benefit Red Cross Japan relief.

Student organizations interested in planning fundraising or collection efforts should contact the Student Activities and Organizations office at 765-494-1231, getinvolved@purdue.edu

[Southsider2k12]

http://mcasnow.mcas.k12.in.us:81/departmen...nes-for-a-cause

Student origami project raises money for Japan relief effort


Sara Miller and Jake Davis, MCHS students in their second year of studying Japanese, make origami cranes.
To engage children in the global relief effort for the Japanese people, the MCAS library media department is spearheading a very special project.

During the weeks of March 28-April 15, students will hear the true story of Sadako, a Japanese girl who developed radiation sickness from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. In the story, Sadako attempts to make 1000 origami paper cranes.

As a follow-up to the story, students will make a paper crane. A philanthropic organization, Architecture for Humanity, is collecting these cranes from children around the world. Additionally, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $2.00 to the relief effort for each crane that is received.

This project will not cost anything! MCAS will even receive a free postage-paid shipping label to send the cranes.

YOU can help by:
* saving full sheets of unneeded, uncrumpled paper from your classroom; donate it to your school's library.
* making a crane for the cause! (Drop cranes off at any school library or the Administration Building.)
* spreading the word to family and friends. Anyone is welcome to make cranes for this project.

Click here to read more about the Paper Cranes for Japan project in the News-Dispatch.


Helpful links...


Architecture for Humanity:
http://architectureforhumanity.org/updates...p-rebuild-japan

Grade-level appropriate activities and sites where students can learn about tsunamis, earthquakes, and more:
http://mcaswiki.mcas.k12.in.us/User:Mgish_old/Tsunami

How to make a paper crane:
http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-crane.html
http://origami.org.uk/origamicrane.htm

More photos, taken March 28 in the MCHS media center, at the farewell celebration for students who were visiting for a week from MCHS's sister school in Japan:

Wow! MCHS student Alex Mark delivered a juice box toast to the group -- entirely in Japanese. (MCHS teacher Mike Tsugawa is with him translating into English for everyone who didn't speak Japanese!)


The Ramion family, who hosted Japanese student Kinami Ohta. (Savannah Ramion is a junior at MCHS.)


The visiting Japanese students with MCAS Superintendent
Dr. Barbara Eason-Watkins:


A student's poster of Japan, showing the epicenter of the recent earthquake:

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...80eec8dc30.html

MICHIGAN CITY | Elston Middle School's Student Council recently sponsored a one-week food drive to support the Salvation Army.

Students collected canned goods from April 18 to April 21. Altogether, students collected 326 food items.

The drive became a contest to see which team could collect the most food. Team 7B won the contest with 251 cans. Their reward was time to watch a movie on Friday afternoon.

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...52cce3a610.html

MICHIGAN CITY | Students at all three MCAS middle schools (Elston, Barker, and Krueger) and Michigan City High School will have an opportunity to take the Bullying Bystanders Unite Pledge this month, committing to safely interceding when they see other students being bullied.

At Elston, principal Kelly Martin-Fargo reported that over 600 students in grades 6 through 8 have already taken the pledge.

The pledge is part of a nationwide effort created by the non-profit organization Hey U.G.L.Y. - Unique Gifted Lovable You - to educate bystanders who witness bullying. It encourages them to take action by following safety practices developed with the help of the Michigan City Police Department (MCPD). The steps are listed on the website www.BullyingBystandersUnite.org

The initiative is made possible through a grant from the Michigan City Community Enrichment Corporation.

Bullying Bystanders Unite focuses on empowering young people to safely come to the aid of someone being bullied by becoming witnesses. Betty Hoeffner, co-founder and president of Hey U.G.L.Y., says students who take the Pledge are making a personal commitment to take a stand against bullying.

Michigan City Police Chief Mark Swistek has endorsed the Bullying Bystanders Unite campaign because it considers children's safety as the most important aspect of dealing with bullying behavior, especially when it becomes physical. The police chief agrees with Hey U.G.L.Y.'s stance of recommending bystanders observe from a safe distance and seek assistance of others before intervening.

"Be careful not to enter into a struggle unless you can be assisted by others," advises Chief Swistek. "Be the best witness you can be by observing or recording the occurrence and other necessary information. This rule also applies to adults. If you're unsure of your abilities or cannot be assisted by others, we encourage witnesses to immediately call 911 and stand by to provide us with the information related to the incident. You can also report anonymously by calling 219.873.1488."

Elston counselors organized a Bullying Bystanders Unite event surrounding the Pledge. Counselor Kathy Angelo created a montage of short video clips focused on statistics about bullying and testimonies from students who took a stand against the behavior. The counselors also role-played a scene about being U.G.L.Y. - Unique, Gifted Lovable You. Counselor Judy Kovalcik then explained the pledge form and asked for signatures of students who wanted to help put a stop to bullying.

"I am proud of my counselors for taking charge of this important event," said Principal Martin-Fargo, adding that the Hey U.G.L.Y. anti-bullying materials provided a vehicle for the school to take a stand against bullying.

A flood of recent media reports about kids being bullied has raised the profile of what some people dismiss as an age-old problem. But school officials such as Martin-Fargo, as well as parents and police officials, are tackling bullying head-on and identifying solutions.

Hoeffner has contacted the National Association of Police Chiefs (NAPC) to make the Bullying Bystanders Unite campaign available to police departments across the nation.

For more information about Bullying Bystanders Unite, including the safety rules and pledge, visit: http://BullyingBystandersUnite.org.

Hey U.G.L.Y. also offers a Stop Bullying Task Force Program, a step-by-step guide for schools to set up an in-school student stop bullying task force, which can be found at http://StopBullyingTaskforce.org.