By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
It was a fire that flared fiercely last week, but quickly burned out.
Faced with a growing bullying problem on the relatively new social media platform Yik Yak, Burlington High School staff moved quickly last week to block the application on the campus.
The issues with the site literally spawned – and died, it seemed – overnight from Monday to Tuesday. With a letter sent out to parents of all students Tuesday afternoon, BHS Principal Eric Burling felt strongly the school had reacted the right way.
If he needed further proof, he got it Wednesday and Thursday from his teachers and students. Working under the director of teacher MacKenzie Ferstenou, students stayed after school to first compile and then place inspirational, motivational sayings on every student’s locker.
“Nothing makes you prouder, as a building leader, that students can demonstrate compassion for each other,” Burling said Tuesday. “They do get the message about the kind of culture we want at Burlington High School.”
Ferstenou said in an email Tuesday that she thought it was “important to counteract” the bullying that was taking place on Yik Yak.
“Ninety-plus percent of the student body was against the negative postings,” Ferstenou said. “They were being drowned out by the 10 percent choosing to use Yik Yak as a tool for bullying.
“We came up with a number of self-affirming quotes, cut them out and placed them on each locker within the school so that the first thing each student would see Friday morning was an uplifting message,” she added.
Ferstenou also credited senior Brooke Kozelou for helping with the project, saying she took on a leadership role within the project.
In addition to advisory periods helping out with the project, sports teams were pulled into the project to help post the quotes.
BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said last week that “it was a quick flame,” and the positive response led to a peaceful following day.
Burling added that the incident proved something else, as well.
“Out of a bad thing, you can get a lot of good, too.”
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