Members of the Columbia High School SAVE Club and Paw Print newspaper staff celebrated a national honor for their anti-bullying video.
“Say Something” earned top honors from the Sandy Hook Promise, a foundation formed after the 2012 deadly shooting of students at a Connecticut school.
The video depicts the stresses and pressures of modern school life for teens. It shows both isolation and bullying and the results of kindness and concern.
Wednesday’s ceremony included a host of national, state and local guests, from Mississippi Supreme Court justices Dawn Beam, Michael Randolph and David Ishee to Mayor Justin McKenzie and Supervisors Terry Broome and Randy Dyess. Officials of the Sandy Hook Promise on hand included one of the founders, Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed in the massacre, and Columbia Allstate Agent Paul Broom also congratulated the students. Allstate is a national sponsor of the club, which stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere.
Ishee challenged students to continue to make a difference.
“Speak up when you see an injustice; speak up when you someone being hurt; speak up when you see danger,” the Gulfport native, who was appointed to the state’s high court last year, said. “You’ve been given a special gift at this school. You’ve set a great example here today, and I challenge you to keep it going.”
Principal Sheila Burbridge said she was very proud of the staff and students who won the award.
“The program was student-developed and student-led because that is what we try to do at Columbia High School,” she said. “We want to prepare our young people to go out and be great citizens in our community.”
SAVE Promise Club President Liza Hathorn, who is also the editor of Paw Print, said she was proud of the honor she and fellow students earned.
“We won the award for our efforts in teaching and empowering students to stand up and say something,” she said.
Superintendent Jason Harris said the students came to his office to do an interview and excitedly discussed their plans to do something great.
“Little did you know that you would win a national award just a few months later. Congratulations,” he said. “When you look at the video you see something in our students, not only at Columbia High School, but all over the world, they face tremendous challenges. It’s not like it was when I went to school or you went to school.”
Harris said their actions are reflective of the entire student body’s commitment to say something positive.
McKenzie and Broome both said they were also proud of the representation from Columbia High School, and Broome said he first heard about the SAVE Club from Hathorn, who is his granddaughter.
“It just amazed me that these young people would put this much time, their off time, weekends and after school, to work on a project as much as they did,” he said. “When I learned a little more about it, I realized that what they were doing was not work or trying to win a prize of being the best, but what they were doing was from their hearts because they cared and loved other people. You just don’t know how proud that makes me to know that we have these kind of young people in our community.”
The program also included entertainment from the CHS choir, under the direction of Kimberly Walley.
SAVE Club sponsor Toni Floyd grew emotional as she spoke about the students and their efforts.
“The most rewarding part of my job as sponsor is watching our high school students grow in compassion and caring,” she said. “They reach out, outside their own cliques and groups, and their comfort zones, to be a voice that can and can and does make a difference.”
Pictured Above: Columbia High School Principal Sheila Burbridge, SAVE Advisor Toni Floyd, Mark Barden, co-founder of the Sandy Hook Promise, SAVE Secretary Lindsey Sumrall and SAVE Vice President Kori Miles hold hands as they sing the CHS Alma Mater at the end of Wednesday’s presentation. | Photo by Mark Rogers
