Growing up and becoming an adult comes with a long list of challenges and being bullied is one of those many challenges Clinton High School senior Edye Carr hopes to prevent.
Carr, who says she has witnessed bullying at school too many times, formed the anti-bullying club, Be Nice, as a way to decrease the number of occurrences of bullying that are taking place in local schools.
“Our students are often told by the administrators and their parents that they shouldn’t bully,” Carr said. “I wanted to share the same message with our students, hoping that they would listen if it came from one of their peers.”
Bullying is something Carr says she doesn’t like to see, but the extreme amount of bullying she witnessed at school that involved one student, raised a red flag and prompted the high school senior to do something about it.
“It’s important that we promote and live the lifestyle,” Carr said. “We can’t expect others to do what they don’t see us doing.”
After witnessing the incidents at school, Carr said she made it a point to talk with the bullied student and get to know her on a more personal level. From that, Carr says a friendship grew. The student, once having to spend many lunch periods alone, was now able to welcome Carr and others into her circle of friends.
“It made me realize the difference I made in her life,” Carr shared. “And then I thought, if I can change the things I do, so will other people.”
Through her own influence, Carr says she was able to help encourage her friends change the way they feel and help spread an anti-bullying message.
“I am simply asking others to be conscious and aware of how other people are treated,” Carr explained.
With the help of Deacon Jones and Scott McLeod, general manager, more than 4,000 bracelets promoting the club’s message, “be nice, it’s that simple,” will be distributed to all students, faculty, staff and administration of Clinton City Schools. Carr is asking everyone to continue wearing their bracelet as a constant reminder to themselves and others to be nice, and not bully.
Carr paid a special visit to students at L.C. Kerr School Thursday morning, and shared her message with four first-graders from Lindsey Faircloth’s class.
After L.C. Kerr principal talked with the young students about the importance of being nice and treating others with respect, Carr gave each student a bracelet and explained the club’s mission and motto.
“I hope that each of you will look at your bracelet and let it be a reminder to be nice to other people,” Carr said.
The “Be Nice” message has made it’s way to Farmville, Va., where Carr’s brother Spell is a student at Hampden-Sydney College. Carr’s grandfather helped make T-shirts for the more than 60 members of the club, and after Spell wore one on campus, his friends and soccer teammates have asked for not only a bracelet, but a T-shirt to wear and show their support of anti-bullying.
Eventually, Carr said, she would like to get more bracelets made and be able to share them with every student in Sampson County. There are a few bracelets going to Hobbton High School at the request of one of the students who lost a friend because of bullying.
