Upstander Videos

By Lauren on February 08, 2010

In Fall 2009, CSEE launched the Stand Up to Bullying Video Contest as the first guided activity of the BullyBust Partner School Program. This activity was designed to help educators and administrators develop school-wide awareness of bullying behavior and to empower students and adults to stand up for themselves and others. By working with students in small groups to develop brief video announcements, schools used this activity to build a shared understanding of how school life should be and to introduce students to upstander behavior in a way that was fun, easy and participatory.

The school behind the winning video wins an array of free supports from CSEE. Our panel of judges reflects a variety of expert perspectives on bullying and upstander behavior: Justin Patchin and Sameer Hinduja, Directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center; Sammi Hanratty, star of the movie An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong and BullyBust advocate; Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of CSEE and co-chair of the National School Climate Council; and members of the National School Climate Youth Council, and council assistant Doug Hart.

I am excited to share the following student videos submitted for the contest, developed by Detroit Edison Public School Academy (Detroit, MI), Yargo Elementary (Winder, GA), Bethlehem Elementary (Bethlehem, GA), New Utrecht High School (Brooklyn, NY), Bellevue Middle School (Nashville, TN), Badger Ridge Middle School (Verona, WI), and Skyline Middle School (Wilmington, DE). You will see that each video reflects creativity, effort, and understanding of upstander behavior. We hope that you’ll share these short videos with your students or colleagues to showcase this great work and use them to start the conversation about the importance of being an upstander (as opposed to passive bystander) with your students. Please enjoy, and don’t forget to rate your favorites: