Thank you to all who UNITED for KINDNESS on October 20, 2021 for Unity Day...students, staff members, families, community members and organizations. The Upper Perk Valley was ORANGE in support of kindness, acceptance and inclusion! Special shout outs to the UPMS Student Council for the great, positive hallway/window decorations, and The Open Link for turning all of your Zoom calls ORANGE this week!

Check out our Unity Day 2021 photo gallery:

You can read more about Unity Day on the National Bullying Prevention Center’s website. You can also check out our coverage from UPSD’s Unity Day 2020 and Unity Day 2019.

Creating a Kinder Upper Perk Community

While recognizing Unity Day is just one step towards creating a kinder, more accepting and inclusive community in our district, it is a step in the right direction. Please know that our administration, faculty and staff, continue to work to address bullying in our schools. Bullying is an incredibly important topic, and it is sadly a challenge that schools and organizations across the country are working to address. With programs like Second Step at the elementary level (and in the process of being implemented in the middle school), assemblies and supports at the secondary level and taking an inventory of our K-12 resources, we will continue to expand our efforts to decrease (and hopefully eliminate) bullying and create a more positive, welcoming learning environment.

There are ways that you can assist in UPSD’s efforts to prevent bullying. Talk to your students about how important it is to practice kindness, be understanding of differences and include others. Parents, school staff and other trusted adults have a role to play in preventing bullying.  We need to address this in a collaborative manner from all stakeholders if we truly want to positively impact our entire community 

StopBullying.gov lists some ways that adults can help prevent bullying:

• Help kids understand bullying. Talk about what bullying is and how to stand up to it safely. Tell kids bullying is unacceptable. Make sure kids know how to get help.
• Keep the lines of communication open. Check in with kids often. Listen to them. Know their friends, ask about school, and understand their concerns.
• Encourage kids to do what they love. Special activities, interests, and hobbies can boost confidence, help kids make friends, and protect them from bullying behavior.
• Model how to treat others with kindness and respect.

When there are incidents of bullying at school, please encourage your students to talk with their teacher, counselor or principal.  In addition, we need the bystander that witnesses bullying actions to be an upstander and take a proactive step to intervene, interrupt, or speak up to stop the bullying.  Thank you again for supporting Unity Day and please know that we will continue to work to create a more positive, welcoming learning environment for all of our Upper Perkiomen students.