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New club hopes to curtail campus violence
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Anonymous user Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:14:32 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments There’s something exciting (and positive) happening at Bakersfield High School.  And, in light of the recent violent incident involving Centennial High School students, it’s also timely.
While BHS is not in the Southwest area, many Southwest residents send their teens there.
Dr. Chuck Wall, founder of the Random Acts of Kindness movement, is starting two new programs. One is a Kindness Ambassador program where adults will be visiting elementary and junior high classrooms to teach the values of kindness and to spread random acts of kindness. The second program is a high school club that has been piloted at BHS and will start on the Stockdale High School campus this month. 
Programs similar to this are being started all over the nation in an effort to curtail campus violence.
The Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Club held its first meeting at BHS last week. The plan is that participants will meet each Wednesday after school to come up with a theme for the week. Students will work each day to integrate some act of kindness into their lives and, at the following week’s meeting, will discuss the great things that happened as a result.
This first theme is making an effort to be kind to someone who a participating student doesn’t know. Students are charged with reaching out each day to someone new — a student they haven’t said  “hello” to or talked to yet.  
Mrs. O’Connor, the club advisor, and my daughter,  Allison, have been working with Dr. Wall to coordinate the program. Andrew Ariey, also a BHS sophomore, is a co-founder. These programs are being underwritten by Kern Schools Federal Credit Union and other corporate sponsors.

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